Phulkari: cloth, stitch and women’s work
Look closely at a Punjabi embroidery tradition through materials, making, domestic use and the limits of surviving collections.
Punjab across present-day India and Pakistan
Culture · A guide to the archive
Craft and skilled work
Explore textiles, cutlery, sports goods, museum records and ancient making through specific objects and workplaces.
How to approach this subject
Bring the maker, material and process into view. These readings span different periods and should not be used to assert an unbroken lineage between them. Compare the kinds of evidence instead: a surviving object, a workshop account, a museum catalogue and excavation remains each make different aspects of skilled work visible.
An intentional selection
Begin with these entries
Researching phulkari through museum records
Two accessioned textiles show how to separate an object’s physical description, its acquisition history and a curator’s interpretation.
Historical Punjab; objects held in Australia and the United States
Wazirabad: the skills and networks behind cutlery
The city’s metalworking history includes specialist workshops, common facilities and programmes that brought small manufacturers together.
Pakistan Punjab
Sialkot: skilled making and an urban heritage
Sialkot’s workshops, trade organisations and literary heritage connect the city to wider markets and cultural histories. Its documented institutions offer a firmer starting point than legendary founding dates.
Pakistan Punjab
Harappan craft and exchange: the evidence of making
Follow raw stone, bead-making debris and coastal shell workshops to understand how Indus craft networks are reconstructed.
Harappa, Punjab, with a comparative coastal workshop in Gujarat