The Collection

The story of this piece

Shameema's needle covered every inch of this indigo ground with a flowering jaal — the net of blossoms that is the signature of the finest sozni. The large central paisley is surrounded by fourteen distinct flowers, each in a different thread colour. It took eleven months of daylight work.

A note on the hand. Shameema works sozni — the finest needlework Kashmir produces. She prefers walnut-dyed thread and works only in daylight, beside a window that faces east. Her father was a copyist of Quranic manuscripts; she says she inherited the steady hand, not the calligraphy.