KOCHI: Embroidery is an art that has existed for many centuries. But lately, there has been a renaissance in embroidery art, with many turning to the needlework and reinventing it. For 25-year-old Samiya Saleem V S too, this is a new age of exploring embroidery in hoop art.
Samiya’s portraits in embroidery art catch one’s attention with their vibrant colours. In hues of red and blue, faces get etched onto the hoop in a grand artistic fashion. The unhurried pace at which the art progresses is perhaps why people find it calming and meditative.
“The process of embroidery art is very soothing and offers a calming effect. Whenever I am upset, I settle with the work and it brings so much peace and serenity,” says 25-year-old Samiya Saleem V S.
A postgraduate in library science, Samiya took to embroidery art during the pandemic. “I had enough time in my hands. I wanted to start a small business. I knew the basics of embroidery as we had classes at school. I started building on it,” says Samiya. And before she knew it, orders started coming in and she saw herself making portraits and artworks in hoop art. The majority of orders are for creating portraits.
That was how Keftatriz was born. “I read somewhere that the word Kef means something that gives pleasure. I do not know the language it is borrowed from. In Arabic Tatriz means embroidery. So I strung together these two words,” says Samiya, a native of Perumbavoor. The venture also helps her to be economically independent, she says.
“This is an art that requires a lot of patience. You cannot hurry through it. You might spend hours on it and still fail to finish a significant portion of the art. So, patience is key. One wrong knot could topple the whole design,” she says.
Samiya is venturing into other embroidery art forms such as jewellery making and decors now. “I want to reach out to more people through my art. That’s the dream,” she says.