Fatima Bi
Embroidery Artist
“My mother's hands guided mine before my eyes could see the pattern. Now my hands see what my eyes cannot.”
Sozni embroidery & Pahari-inspired motifs · Basohli, Kathua District
The Story
Fatima Bi was born into embroidery. Her mother, her grandmother, and her great-grandmother were all Sozni artists. She began learning at seven, starting with simple border patterns, graduating to full-body embroidery by her twenties.
What makes her work unique is her deep familiarity with Basohli's miniature painting tradition. Growing up surrounded by reproductions of these 17th-century paintings — with their bold colors, intricate floral borders, and expressive human figures — she began incorporating their motifs into her embroidery. The result is a style that is entirely her own: Pashmina that carries the visual language of Basohli's painted heritage.
She works only in natural light, sitting on the floor of her home with the shawl stretched across her lap. A single shawl can take three to six months of embroidery work. She does not trace patterns — every motif is drawn freehand with the needle, guided by memory and instinct.
Fatima Bi has trained over a dozen women in her neighborhood, creating a small but growing circle of embroidery artists who are keeping this tradition alive.