EMBROIDERING THE STORY

The needlework skills of the women of Bangladesh might well be legendary, if only they were more widely recognised.

But whilst good craft shops all over the country stock a wide array of splendid examples of hand worked soft furnishings, so few and far between are the tourists that their skills pass unnoticed by a wider world.

Worse still, so much of the labour goes, at best, poorly paid: perhaps $2 or 3 for two days of nimble fingered creative skills, usually under conditions of sight threatening lack of light.

Beyond the technical skills lies, perhaps, the most remarkable feature of their work. The creativity of the generally rather naive art form, which generally illustrates what they see around them, or what they imagine they see.

A bed cover or wall hanging may well consist of a carefully thought our kaleidoscope of forms and colours, many of which can be read as a picture story. A story of everyday life; a cycle of life itself; a story of the seasons in the village; a story of life from cradle to grave; a history... the themes are endless.

Maybe each little masterpiece is not a Bayeux Tapestry, but the simplicity of the illustration of simple country life may be the more appealing!