These contemporary textiles are hand woven and hand embroidered by women in designs traditionally used in the 18th and 19th centuries in the Silk Road cities and towns of Uzbekistan.  By the early 20th century the art of natural dying had largely fallen b the wayside in places like Samarquand, Bukhara, Tashkent, and Shahrisabz.  However, with independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 there has been a return of some of the traditional commerce of the region.  One of the happy outcomes is the rediscovery of the use of natural dyes and a renascent production of suzanis, this traditional needlework of the women on Silk Road.

The silk used in the embroidery of these pieces is colored with natural dyes from various plants and insects. The red come from madder and cochineal; the blue come from indigo; the yellow from a variety of local plants; the black from pomegranate; and so forth. The brilliance of the dyes, along with their subtle variations, results in an appearance unmatched by the flat regularity of modern chemical dyes.

The ground fabric is hand woven with a silk wrap and cotton weft. The silk wrap gives the ground fabric a "hand" or touch that is superior to that of a simple cotton fabric, and the silk adds a subtle visual richness to the surface. Compare it to the machine made 100% cotton backing, which, while a very nice quality material, does not have the same look or feel.

The fabric has been woven on a narrow loom by hand, resulting in a piece of cloth typically about 17-20" wide. The strips are then tacked together to make the larger piece of cloth. Then a master draws the design on fabric with a pen. The pieces are then taken apart and each is embroidered separately by hand. When the pieces are rejoined the design will never match exactly at the seams and changes in color will also be noticeable. These slight variations were not traditionally considered to be a defect. Rather, they add some interest and give each piece its own character. This is how these items have always been made, and the variations do little to detract from the color, beauty, and rhythm of the designs. Each piece is also a slightly different size, slightly different color, and even if made by the same artisan, never exactly the same design.

In the past, in both Eastern and Western cultures, textiles were a repository of wealth, mark of status, and indicator of a clan or tribe, and a major component of long distance trade. We now live in a society of mass production, where the importance of beautiful textiles in our environment has been minimized. These textiles from Uzbekistan open a window to an appreciation of fabrics in our environment that is now largely missing in our daily lives.