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The
Rajagopuram :
Mrs. Usha Sridhar President and Mrs. G.K.Krishnaveni, technical
director of TILUNA said after long discussion they finally
selected Rajagopuram as the motif for their enterprise. Mr.Sivapragasm
Stapathi of Srirangam and Prof. P. Manickavachagam of Department
of Architecture National Institute of Technology helped them
to prepare a replica of the great Rajagopuram for taking up
embroidery work. TILUNA aimed at the stars, and to motivate
one and all wanted to make their endevour get into the Guinness
Book of Records. Enquiry revealed that the Guinness Book had
no category under half stitch embroidery, and the tapestry
record closest to their work was 15,000 square feet. About
3,000 pieces of the Rajagopuram embroidery, with a total 25,000
square feet would be indeed a record. And the programme was
launched said Mrs. Usha Sridhar, a housewife, who had her
initiation into the field of arts, crafts and embroidery through
her mother.
The
materials :
The starched yarn canvas measuring 36 inches by 25 inches,
totaling as many as 82,875 tiny holes was the base for the
embroidery work said Mrs. G.K.Krishnaveni. They approached
Madura Coats, a premier institution in the field of textiles
and threads in the country. The company immediately agreed
to give them free of cost as many as 3,000 canvas pieces,
as and when needed. The Pony company of Udhagamandalam, on
seeing a newspaper report, rushed to Trichy and offered over
65,000 embroidery special needles for the great endeavour.
The TILUNA decided to supply 800 metres of 10 different colours
of thread valued about Rs.500, and the frames, by courier
to all who came forward voluntarily to make the pieces.
Stitch
Embroidry Work:
The half stitch embroidery work was well known all over the
world, and it needed tremendous patience and perseverance
to make the art pieces on the canvas obtained from Madura
coats, the figure of Rajagopuram was screen printed in colour
by Mr. Sooraj, Aztecprint Process of Bangalore, so all the
pieces will look exactly alike. After fixing the canvas on
the frames, the embroidery work from the base of the Rajagopuram
started. While for professionals, like Mrs. Krishnaveni it
took about one month for completing, the piece, working four-five
hours per day, for those who were beginners, or had only preliminary
experience, it took two to three months to complete the 82,000
stitches with 800 metres thread.
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