Tradition · embroidery tradition · Pakistan
Baloch needlework (doch)
The embroidery that covers the front panel, cuffs and pocket of the Balochi pashk, worked in silk floss in tight geometric fields with mirrors set into them, and counted rather than drawn — the pattern is built by counting threads, so it is carried in memory and not on paper. Regional grammars are distinct enough to place a garment: Makrani, Kalāti and Rakhshāni work differ in palette and in the density of the stitch. It is women's work, done at home, and a single pashk front can take months.
- Function
- Trade & production
- Confidence
- Not assessed
- Location
- 26.000, 64.500
Worth knowing
Because the design is counted off the weave rather than traced, a woman who knows a pattern can reproduce it exactly on a different cloth without any drawing, and the patterns have names that are inherited within families.
Connections (2)
- AnalogueKutch Rann salt & embroidery
Two women's embroidery traditions on either side of the Thar and the Rann, and they share a grammar. Baloch doch and the Kutchi work of the Rann are both counted rather than drawn — the pattern is built by counting threads off the weave, so it is held in memory and transmitted within families — and both set small mirrors into dense geometric fields. The regional styles are fine enough to place a garment within a district. The desert between them was never a barrier: it was pastoral country that both sides moved through.
- Craft tradition ofGwadar
Makrani doch is the coastal branch of Baloch embroidery, and Gwadar is where it travels from. Baloch families have moved between the Makran and Oman for generations — Gwadar was administered from Muscat until 1958 — so the coastal embroidery styles, with their own palette and stitch density, have a second home in the Gulf, where Baloch communities buy and commission them. The work is one of the more durable things that crossed with the people, along with the language.
On these journeys
- Craft and industry — where things are made and why there
- Balochistan — the plateau and the Makran coast
Sources
Wikipedia, “Baloch needlework”. Pakistan Institute of Fashion and Design craft survey; Sheila Paine, Embroidery from Afghanistan and Baluchistan.
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