The stitch times

Embroidery has been a conventional favourite of those who wanted to add value to their products, especially in textiles and apparel. As the consumers' taste evolved over the period of time; so did the style and application of embroidery from logos to florals to geometric to placement embroideries, including cartoons and lettering. But, essentially, it remained embroidery done with thread alone.

Designers from across the globe, in all times, have been inspired by the rich and diverse traditions of the olden times, following and reviving long forgotten techniques and styles. Since almost all of such designs were made by artisans by hand, replicating them by machine was always challenging and, in many cases, impossible. This included using sequins, beads, cord, glass tubes, etc., all of which have the power to enhance the perceived added value by manifold.

It seems only natural that the embroidery machine manufacturers would strive to develop a technology to break the stereotype of machine embroidery being equated with using thread alone and usher a new era of automisation that would allow the use of variety of material. So was born the first automatic sequin machine way back around mid eighties. After that, there was no looking back, even though the initial progress in this direction was painfully slow.

Today, we have machines that can produce such complicated embroidery designs that, at times even for a trained eye, it becomes difficult to judge whether it was done by hand or by machine. So much so, that many a unscrupulous sales person regularly pass off machine made stuff to their unsuspecting customers as 'hand-made' and even charge a fat premium for that. In fact, new technology has opened up an entirely new range of design possibilities in embroidery that never existed before and which cannot be replicated by hand like the ribbon embroidery, threadless embroidery, coiling embroidery etc.

Even though the first generation technology was available outside India since long, it was not until early nineties when the first of these machines were imported in India. Even though the sequin attachment technology was still in its infancy, the bigger problems faced by the users was the unavailability of raw material, namely the sequin roll, which could only be imported. This, coupled with India's restrictive import policies and prohibitive custom tariff, made sure there were very few takers of the new technology. Moreover, in those days, the much-in-demand Indian hand work (sequin, bead and stone) was available at rip-off prices and the investors did not find it lucrative enough to go for the high-end technology that came at a very high price tag.

With the passage of time, the demand for hand-look grew even in the domestic market. But the scarcity of trained work force that could execute such orders ensured the steep rise in cost of these products. Their lower cost and faster deliveries made the machine made look-alikes more acceptable and the new chapter of high-end value addition was opened.

Today, machines can be ordered with double sequin, 4-sequin, even 6-sequin devices attached to each head that can attach sequins right from 2 mm to 19 mm in diameter, in any conceivable shape and colour. You can mix sizes, colours, shapes, even apply 2 sequins, one on top of another, in a single stroke, thus creating a sandwich. Then you can further embellish the design by using wide range of cords or fancy yarns or even pre-stringed beads and sequins. Not only that, the prestringed glass tubes could be twisted and turned in any way, as per the design, just like hand work.