Meet our Master Embroiderer Mohd Gulzar Ansaari

Traditional Hand Embroidery Artisan

TRADITIONAL HAND EMBROIDERY ARTISAN

Gulzar Ansari working at his home atelier in Delhi

The opportunities to work with highly skilled artisans has always made us appreciate an idea’s elusive – soulful journey to a finished product. The artisans are experienced in their crafts and are also opinionated about design. We share viewpoints, laughter, and sometimes disagreements while trying to achieve a similar outcome.

Marasim works with Master embroider Gulzar out of his own creative space. Thus, with time, Gulzar’s workplace has become our second home, and every detail about him and how he works has become an everlasting memory. The way he uses his stained but gorgeous old teapots and always sits and works by the window sill that is always half covered with an old embroidered mesh and how we make small conversations about our families, past, hopes, and our future. These relationships are the foundation of Marasim. Our collected glints of pure gold. In these unprecedented times, we are opening up our box of stories with the hope that they will inspire some hope and smiles. Gulzaar Ansari.

MEET GULZAAR ANSARI 

Meet Mohd. Gulzar Ansaari an unsung hero of fashion.
Gulzar is based in New Delhi, India. Having been born and brought up in Delhi, he is a true ‘Delhiite.’ He lives there with his siblings, wife, and kids. They are a huge family and a very talented one too. Gulzar and his family have been practicing Aari and Zardozi embroideries at their home atelier for nearly 22 years. He vividly remembers his grandfather practicing these embroideries and fondly shares the memories of his mother spending hours on the hand embroidery frame. In his own words, “All of us, brothers and sisters, grew up playing around these frames and embroideries.”TRADITIONAL HAND EMBROIDERY ARTISANHis first ‘commercial’ hand embroidery work was at 18, an embroidered purse that he sold for under $1. He could have made more money for his hard work. However, the hand embroidery on the purse caught the attention of a visiting designer from England. What ensued for Gulzar and his family was a series of stellar opportunities.

They got an opportunity to embroider a 100-year-old flag for Hatfield House in England. After almost 45-50 days of working day and night, they did a great job recreating the flag and earned around $3200 (nearly 17 years ago) for their work. Additionally, the same British designer offered them regular hand embroidery work for four years. As self-independent hand workers, this phase was like a dream for Gulzar’s family.

After this phase, opportunities became scarce, and the ability to work independently was challenging. The connoisseurs of genuine craftsmanship were rare, and the hourly wages offered were meager. Moreover, their fellow embroiderers were switching to masonry jobs to be able to put bread on their tables.

To escape this situation, Gulzar and his family designed their collection of embroidered bags and handcrafted accessories. They would work and stock up during the off-season and try to sell them during the wedding or festival season. But soon, Gulzar realized that ‘sales’ was not their cup of tea and they should focus on pursuing their art. Therefore, he started doing hand embroidery work for other designers.

Designer Collaborations

His designer collaborations lend him new and challenging design work, which he relished solving with his extraordinary skills. Gulzar says, “There is a difference between sketching with the pen and embroidering with the needle. Suppose the designers want to create masterpieces and bring the best out of their collaboration. In that case, the designers have to make an effort to treat hand embroidery like a software technology and spend time to understand its language well.”

TRADITIONAL HAND EMBROIDERY ARTISAN

TRADITIONAL HAND EMBROIDERY ARTISAN

TRADITIONAL HAND EMBROIDERY ARTISANTRADITIONAL HAND EMBROIDERY ARTISAN

LOOKING FORWARD

At 40, he feels optimistic about the future of his work, as he sees a trend for the revival of authentic hand work. He loves that the young generation values his talent and lineage and that he is approached by reputed museums, designers, students, and entrepreneurs to share his knowledge. Gulzar takes pride in his embroidery work and attention to detail. He works 10-12 hours daily, assisted by his siblings and extended family, who are also accomplished, embroiderers.

I hope you enjoyed a little glimpse of Master embroiderer Gulzar Ansari’s life. He is our biggest strength in Embroidery and a great teacher to the rest of our embroidery team.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nidhi Garg Allen is an alumnus of Parsons School of Design and Adjunct Professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She is a technologist turned artisan entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Marasim. Marasim based in NYC is committed to preserving artisanal textiles that make use of regional techniques without uprooting craftspeople from their native communities

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5 Comments
  • Tamara Rampley
    Posted at 17:11h, 25 April Reply

    Thank you, so much for sharing Gulwar’s story. As an artist, the beauty of Zardozi embriodery was one of the things that drew me to India, and now I have a fledgling fair trade business, I was planning to return to find Skilled Artisans just like him, so your post is very timely, thank you.so much
    I did speak to a Gentleman at the Craft Museum in Delhi, but never managed to find him in his home village near Varanasi, a year later, and the emails went unanswered, so I shall enjoy looking afresh now with your help. THANK YOU so much for profiling such amazing skill

    • Nidhi
      Posted at 19:56h, 26 April Reply

      Hi Tamara, Thank you for your comment. The first comment on our new blog 🙂
      Zardosi embroidery is a very special skill. We know a group of Zardosi artisans in different parts of India. Depending on the size of the project and the budget provided we select groups to work with.

      Please write to us info@marasim.co for any further information.

      Thanks

      • Tamara Rampley
        Posted at 13:43h, 27 April Reply

        Dear Nidhi
        Thank you for your kind reply, I certainly will be in touch with more information. Please give me a little time, as I am just one lady with an absolutely huge dream and I am still in the early days of sorting out finance, I found your Instagram post before I had really started my search for embroiders, so I have a little more work to do yet. But as both India and the UK are in lockdown I guess I have little time to sort out finance, but i have waited many years to be able to work with artisans of Zardozi embroidery and it is where my heart is, so you will here from me again soon. I promise. Much love across the miles. Stay well and safe
        Tamara

  • Tamara Rampley
    Posted at 16:54h, 20 April Reply

    I have read and enjoyed your new post on Zardozi Nihidi, It is so inspiring! I am still true to all I wrote earlier and will be back as soon as I can. I pray you and all your incredibly talented Artiisans stay well an safe! You are all – although I have not met you yet – in my heart!

    • Nidhi Garg
      Posted at 23:19h, 20 April Reply

      Thank you for your kind words Tamara 🙂 Please stay safe

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