Cross-stitch embroidery is an integral part of the Palestinian heritage, and as such, we value it greatly. By preserving it, we safeguard, confirm and assert our Palestinian identity.
Palestinian women, especially in rural areas, are famous for their skill in this kind of embroidery, which is utilized in various aspects of their daily life to decorate and enrich garments and headdresses and to adorn artistically reflect the beauty of the country as a whole, as well as the distinctive features of each area.
Embroidery in each geographic area features distinctive colors and designs which are in harmony with the environment of that area.
The embroidery section was established in 1968 when the Association was still in its initial stages, with the aim of preserving folkloric skills and generation income for the benefit of women who suffered privation due to the Israeli occupation.
At that time, the Association consisted of only one room, a few employees, and six women who did the embroidery at home. Volunteer members of the Association played a major role in launching this project, in particular Mrs. Lamis Alv Fahoum and Mrs. Tania Nasir. The three of us used to go to the Old City in Jerusalem to buy material and thread, carry them ourselves and walk to Damascus Gate to take the care back to the Association. Then we would decide on the designs to be created and distribute the materials to the embroiderers at their homes. The support and encouragement of Mrs. Samiha Khalil, President of the Society, and the facilities she offered at the time, played an important role in the success and development of this project.
Currently, about 5000 women in [different villages, towns, and refugee camps embroider for the Association. A coordinator from each area takes the cloth, thread, designs and distributes them to women in their area where she supervises the quality of their work. The supervisor brings the completed work to the Association and collects the earnings to be distributed to each woman according to the number of silk/ cotton thread balls she has used. Each supervisor gets a percentage of the total earnings of her area. The cloth used is of high-quality cotton and locally woven.
The thread is DMC, a French color fast brand. Each DMC ball consists of 95 yards/87 meters and produces approximately 6990 cross-stitches (a typical peasant dress requires 40 DMC balls and contains 279600 cross-stitches). These figures reflect the amount of effort put into producing such a dress.
Folkloric dresses and ornaments inspire our designs, sometimes we incorporate modern elements in order to enrich and modernize this art. To achieve very- high quality finishing of the embroidered material, we have employed a team for starching, ironing, lining and sewing.
This store contains illustrations of some of our products: cushions, wall hangings, dresses, shawls, runners, etc.
Mrs. Leila Akram Nuri
