Wedding veil (Phulkari) c. 20th century

This is a Phulkari wedding veil, made with floss silk on cotton, and held in the Minneapolis Institute of Art. You can see how the maker has built up the pattern by adding repeated marks, each one a slight variation, to create the overall effect. It feels so personal, like a diary entry. I love the way the silk catches the light, and the colours seem to shift as you move around it. There's a depth of texture, each stitch a little world of its own, like you could get lost in there. Looking closely at the tiny lozenge shapes, each one feels slightly different. Imperfect maybe, but full of character and so much more interesting than a machine made thing. You can feel the hand of the maker. I’m reminded of the quilts of Gee’s Bend, women making art from necessity, using simple tools and materials, to make something beautiful and full of meaning. Like those quilts, this veil invites you to see the world in a new way, to find beauty in the everyday.