Mirror work, also known as Abhla Bharat is an embroidery form where small shisha mirrors are used for doing embroidery. This embroidery is used for making a shimmery design on various dresses, especially in Gujarat and Rajasthan. In Gujarat, they are used for embellishing chaniya choli, bags, sarees, dresses, and other items. In Rajasthan also, it is used for embellishing lehenga, bags, clutches, dupatta etc.
In ancient times, mica was used for doing this embroidery, with passing time mica was replaced with glass. The round shape was mainly used for the embellishment. However, they are available in various shapes like square, diamond, rectangle, oval, teardrop, triangle and more. Various designer cross stitches are used for casing the shisha mirror into place. It requires a little practice to make that proper stitch. Once you get hold of it, you can make various designs on the fabric. Other than embroidery the most popular use of highly reflective pieces is in craft, therefore they are also famous as craft mirrors.
They can sometimes be very heavy to use so a lighter version of these mirrors came into the trend and those were foil mirrors. They come in a form of a sticker sheet and can be placed anywhere on the design. They are similarly enclosed by stitches on the fabric as that of shisha mirrors. They are easy to use and more economical.
The limitation of both these types is that it takes a lot of time to stitch and enclose each mirror into place while doing hand embroidery. So, we launched a new type of mirror which was cut from the acrylic sheet.
They as reflective as traditional mirrors and have the following advantages:
- They have holes for sewing. You can easily sew them to any fabric you want even if you are a newbie. It is just as simple as sewing a sequins, you don’t need to learn proper casing stitches for it.
- They are really strong and don’t break easily.
- As they have holes, they can be used for making jewelry by using jump rings.
- They are available in lovely shapes like star and flower which are not easily available in glass.
Each type of mirror has its own significance and it totally depends on your design’s requirement. So, let me know in the comment section which one you want to use and of course, you can buy shisha mirror online here at embroiderymaterial.com.
