Technical phases in manufacturing (manufacturing process)

1. The drawing (kalam in Tamil)
Every embroidery begins with a drawing; the drawing itself is first done on scale in pencil on a tracing paper. If the curtain to be embroidered measures 4,50m in height and 1,80m in width, the drawing should be precisely the same size. This process can sometimes require 2 to 3 weeks of work. When the colours go up to 50 at times, the drawing is accompanied by a painting on scale to enable the embroiderer to know where to place his colours

2. The pricking
Once the drawing is complete, the embroiderers prick the same with a fine needle so as to perforate it entirely following the outlines of the drawing. This delicate operation can necessitate 2 to 3 days of work for a dozen embroiderers.

3. Fixing the design
Once pricked, the tracing is held by the embroiderers who place it either on a fabric extended on a frame or on a table when the fabric is too supple or risks being deformed.

Then a chalk powder mixed with crushed Arabic resin and methylated spirit is applied to the tracing - the powder filters through the fine holes and the design appears on the fabric. This delicate process must ensure that at no time the tracing moves as otherwise the design will be hazy and unclear.

4. Now the embroidery can begin
The embroidery frame is in wood and can weigh upto 120 kgs for a 6 meter frame. Two mortises make up the longest part of the frame; two other wooden pieces which go through the frame enable the adjustment of the width of the frame, which are blocked to the desired width with the help of nails. This whole is then placed on threstles at 40 cm from the ground and the craftsmen sit around the frame. 

5. The embroidery
The embroidery develops from the centre to the outside, by opening the fabric rolled around the frames and by stretching the fabric each time on the frame with the help of steam that is passed from underneath so as to maintain the fabric perfectly stretched. 
If the fabric is large, the unrolling and the setting up of the frame can take one day and requires a team of 6 to 8 workers, a little bit like setting up the sails on a boat.

6. The tools
The needle and the crochet or hook make up the essential tools of an embroiderer. The crochet is a sort of fish hook which enables the embroiderer to get a grip on the thread which he holds in his left hand under the frame, to pass it through the fabric and by twisting his crochet to make a knot which resembles a link in a chain; from where the name chain stitch; the chain stitch can be tiny (Beauvais stitch) or thicker if the embroiderer gathers several threads together. The embroiderers often make their own crochets which they adapt to their hands.

The crochets are made from a needle polished on the reverse wherein the eye of the needle has been cut in order to take the shape of a fish hook or harpoon. The length and the thickness of the handle is around 5 mm and depends on the hand of each embroiderer.

The diversity of chain stitch is large and can be done with a almost all threads, wool, cotton, silk, metal.

The crochet
Is an invention of the 19th century perhaps French ?
The needle remains the instrument par excellence, it enables a variety of almost infinite stitches; it also fixes on fabric materials other than threads, sequins, ribbon, beads, soft wire and stiff wires, gold thread, buttons and all ingredients one can attach onto a textile.

7. The most common stitches used are:
- le point lace, which is very precise and regular and covers well.
- le point de Pierre, which creates the illusion of a softwire fabric
- le point de Boulogne, which fixes together threads grouped together on the fabric by fixing them at regular intervals.
- le point mousse or point de velour, which forms loops which one cuts with scissors so as to get the equivalent of a knotted carpet.
- le point de psse impietant, which helps to interpret colours and to achieve colour shades.
- le point riche, a sort of thick zig zag.
- le point d'ombre which creates opaque areas behind the fabric.
- le point de bourrage, relief created by a group of threads sometimes very thick on which one places chenille, gold thread or soft wire or even an appliqué fabric.

Soft-wire and stiff-wire
Made famous even before it got its name, the soft-wire is a spring manufactured from a metal dipped in gold or silver often used for ceremonial embroideries, for the court, for uniforms of important officers, thrones, ceremonial beds or even for sumptuous velvet curtains.

The soft-wire is cut into sections of small springs according to the desired size, the embroiderer takes his needle through the spring from one end to the other and fixes it at each end onto the sort of molding (relief); this technique plays with reliefs and is particularly impressive and gives the impression of a goldsmith's art on fabric like gold filigree.

Soft wire can be round, square, coloured, powdered, twisted to play with the entire range of metal textures and is often accompanied with stiff wire, which is a coiled wire often placed like fish scales.

In embroidery for interiors, one can often resort to appliqués of fabrics…leather, suede, gold or silver gauze which are placed one on top of the other and then cut out like in-lay work. 

Ribbons are also frequently used and can be in gold, satin, leather or velvet, folded, twisted, coiled, etc…they are fixed with a needle or with a crochet and often serve as a frame or a border to a more complex embroidery - all sorts of trims, cordons are used with the same idea to frame or underline finer embroideries.