Hunza valley embroidery
Rust Cushion Cover with Navy Lattice and Cream Scrolls
Cushions
A burnt-orange ground is divided by a navy grid into compartments holding cream and gold scrolling forms with hooked, horn-like terminals, set off by a grey-blue border of small floral sprigs. The curling scroll motifs evoke the ram's-horn and cloud-like forms seen in Hunza embroidery, in the manner of the Turangkish ibex-horn tradition. Worked in silk cross stitch on a woven base, its warm rust tone gives a bold, characterful presence to a chair.
The tradition
Hunza valley embroidery
Embroidery is the secret weapon behind Hunza Carpet, and the cushion covers are where it is most intimate. The tradition grows out of the pillbox caps that Hunza women embroidered for their own use, worked with Chinese silk that arrived over the passes on Silk Route caravans.
Today educated women artisans embroider cushion covers with the same fine silk-thread stitches, reviving old cap-and-veil designs alongside new compositions for the home.
Motifs & meaning
Reading the design
Cushion designs draw directly on the names and meanings recorded in Hunza's embroidery tradition.
Turangkish
Ibex horns — the emblem of the Karakoram's wild goat.
Tamuts
The snow leopard, elusive guardian of the high mountains.
Urki itsu
A wolf's foot, a protective tracking motif.
Kishtimuts
A boat, recalling travel and the crossing of waters.
Materials & technique
How it is made
Hand-embroidered in real silk thread using Hunza's traditional stitches — erāghi cross and roll stitch, qalmi long-and-short floral work — on a woven ground.
Interested in rust cushion cover with navy lattice and cream scrolls?
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