Roses, arabesque mosaics and paintings

 Roses, Arabesque Mosaics and my Paintings

My first love has always been my painting and regretfully I find less and less time to work on my paintings. Strangely, over the years I seem to want to spend more time working on each painting so that I have to force myself to stop. There has to be some end point where the painting pleases me enough for me to move on! Here is a watercolor I am currently working on. 

I am particularly fond of roses and try to put them in many things I create. These handmade marble dust wall hangers are inspired from golden Indian jewellery. I love the Tutti Frutti Cartier necklaces with the large inlaid jewels and since I love roses I inlaid these hangers with roses.

Golden inlaid wall hangers

When I started watercoloring I found all this pattern and texture in the natural movement of flowers and leaves. There is always a pattern in the way vegetation finds light and so I am always finding patterns that are based on floral design for my mosaics. This box has a top which is a floral arabesque I designed using just a few  tile colors and some silver. Again I love the idea of jewelled pendants and I always center designs around them.

Flip top mosaic box

Embroidery that has Islamic or even arabesque undertones will always stand out from  Indian designs that tend to use the curve of the mango or other more subcontinental icons. I love the influences the subcontinental embroiderer adds to the hand embroidery he fashions. I will create a design or a flat sketch, throw in the colored thread and an assortment of beads I have chosen and watch them weave their magic. My embroiderers have such well trained eyes that if something doesn't seem right they will stop and confer with me. The floral design here is being worked on for an evening bag I will sell in the Craft Company but again I love the jewelled effect and insist on adding pearls and crystal to the embroideries to give them their Eastern yet subdued elegance. 

Beaded hand embroidery

Pakistan is  rooted in the subcontinent and is influenced by Indian culture, art and of course Bollywood. At the same time it is deeply mindful of its Islamic heritage. The artisans of this land seem to mix these influences so that there is an identity in its craft that is truly original.

some bags ready to be packed for the Craft Company