The Collection

The story of this piece

A pair of great butas face each other across the centre of an ivory ground, surrounded by a vine that fills every remaining inch. Shameema calls this her most classical piece — everything in its right proportion, nothing added that doesn't need to be there.

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.