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Dasgowar
A finished panel filled edge to edge with embroidery, madder reds and rose pinks worked so densely that the ground cloth barely shows

Hand-stitched in Balochistan

Colour belongs to the cloth

Balochi doch, counted-thread embroidery from Kech, Panjgur, Turbat and Mastung. Every panel is stitched by one person, start to finish, and takes between one and six weeks.

See what is finished
Time per piece

1–6 weeks

One maker, start to finish

Motif region

Balochistan

Hand-stitched at home

Women artisans

Handcrafted by skilled craftswomen from their homes

New arrivals

Finished in the last few weeks

See everything

Shop by motif

Start with the form of the work

A maker's hands holding a half-finished panel, one finger keeping the count in the row

The maker’s note

A good stitch gives the eye somewhere to rest

Doch is counted work. You do not draw the motif first, you count threads in the ground cloth and the pattern comes out of the arithmetic. That is why an old panel and a new one from the same family look related without being copies.

We work with multiple women in Turbat, Panjgur and Mastung. They are paid per piece, they set the pace, and the piece is finished when they say it is. We make fewer things than we could and check each one before it leaves.

Lookbook

Colour, close up

Two hands pulling a length of red thread taut across an embroidery frame
Spools of silk floss lined up by shade, from madder through to marigold
A narrow loom strung with red warp threads, the shuttle laid across the shed
A grid of embroidered squares, each worked in a different counted-thread motif
Wooden bobbins hanging from a pillow, each wound with a different weight of thread
Cones of cotton thread stacked on a workshop shelf