All,
I absolutely *love* the jewelry made by nomads from Afghanistan and
Valerie J. Rose
I have another question.....
surrounding areas. It is sometimes called "Kuchi jewelry". (Or Kochi, or
Kuchey, or several other spellings.) They have been making the stuff for
hundreds of years, apparently, and often using coin silver that they melted
down. The stones are often glass with some kind of colored backing to look
colored - they use some kind of "foil" on the pieces that I have. Belly
dancers often wear the stuff too, because it has the look they like and it
jingles nicely.....most pieces have dangling pieces just for the sounds as
they rattle against each other when the wearer moves.
Anyway, I knew that the designs were quite old, and you even find pieces
that are very old. And the word is that they have been made just this way
since well into SCA period - though finding an actual piece that old is
almost impossible. Most of it is still made by hand, too.
I wondered what type of clothing was worn by the people who made the
jewelry, but I could never find out. Then I saw that a company called
"Folkwear" had an "Afghani Nomad Dress" pattern...and I got one. It's
pretty, but involves *alot* of fancy embroidery for the bodice piece. I
have had several neck injuries and have trouble with my hands, so delicate
embroidery is almost always not possible for me to do (sigh). Other than
that, and the neckhole being in the back....which I find awkward....it
looked pretty comfortable. And you use bright colors, and big patterns,
which are fun. I *love* comfortable garb and bright colors!:)
So, I went back to the local library and looked around....and found
several pictures of women in these dresses. But, except in a rare, very few
cases, the dresses did *not* have the embroidery panel and the neckhole was
in the front. The front almost always had some kind of decoration....coins
or whatever.
Then I saw a booklet offered on Ebay with ethnic patterns...just a few how
to do it stuff in a few pages, and not pattern pieces, etc. One of the
things in the booklet was the Afghani nomad dress, but this one was like
the ones I'd been seeing in the pictures...neck hole in front. It's very
simple...one long rectangle for the top, inc the sleeves, and a few pieces
for the skirt. So, I grabbed it, and have had one dress made from it. I
like some decoration on the bodice, so I had the lady that made it for me
use the pieces from the front of an old patchwork look vest that I got from
Goodwill - it had originally been made in India - and just piece it onto
the bodice area of the dress - and it looks great! I already have plans for
another one, too.
So, my question is...is this period? Just making sure. Nomads do things
the same way for a long time. If it works that way, then they usually stick
to it. So, I *think* that it is period. But, I figured that someone on this
list might know for sure.
pooka@indy.net
From: "Valerie Rose" <pooka@indy.net>
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Received on Fri Dec 17 00:52:04 1999
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