The material used for suzanis was mostly undyed cotton, 25-50 cm wide,produced by the local weavers or women themselves. Often the cloth was soaked in a prepared tea leaf or onion skin solution to achieve a desired shade of light brown. . Sometimes silk fabric was used instead of cotton.The patterns were usually embroidered in domestically produced silk, and colored with natural dyes by professional craftsmen, rangborchi (dyer).Silk threads colored following ways :
Light yellow color of threads turns out from zarchava – a saffron,bright yellow color turns out from an onions peel,brown color turns out from a nut peel,lilac color turns out from mulberry (black mulberry),dark lilac it turns out from sweet cherry,gray-blue color turns out from raspberry, gray-green color turns out from an usma, dark marsh color turns out from smoke soot, orange and coral color turns out from henna.
Thus, dyes are extracted from such plants, as zarchuba, mulberry, nut, henna, raspberry,sweet cherry, onions.
The length of a cloth was cut into several strips, which were then stitched loosely together to create the desired size suzani. An older woman in the family or a special artist woman would draw designs in black ink on the sewn strips. These special artists were called kalamkash (kalam - "pencil"), and they were trained to draw freehand, as well as use a bowl or plate for circular shapes. The skills of kalamkash were passed on in the family from mother to daughter after a special ritual. After the design was drawn on the cloth, the loose stitches were undone and each strip offabric was embroidered separately. This allowed several women to work simultaneously.
That drawing is a profession inherited by succession is its important feature. Usually,drawing was succeeded on female, primarily straight line—from mother to daughter and sometimes, from grandmother to granddaughter. Only in rare instances, if a daughter turned to be unable to draw to did not want to go in for it, an artist was succeeded by a sister or a daughterin-law, who, according to the custom, most often turned to be a in blood relationship with her mother-in-law and belonged to the same kin.
The predominant embroidery technique used in a suzani is the chain stitch, done with an instrument called a tambour, a hooked needle (similar to a sharp crochet hook) that pierces the fabric and draws embroidery thread from behind through to the design side. In the chain stitch, a series of looped stitches form a chain-like pattern. Chain stitch embroidery does not require the hook to pass through more than one layer of fabric. And because chain stitches can form flowing, curved lines, they are used in many surface embroidery styles that mimic drawings in thread. The chain stitch is most often used for outlining couched areas or for producing delicate lines and fine details.
The ilmok (a double buttonhole stitch) is also used work the outlines. It is made using a plain needle. To fill in the outlines, the couching stitch is often used, whereby a decorative thread is laid on the surface of the fabric as a raised line and then stitched in place with a second thread.
