Focus on this artwork and discuss the Description.
The seven panels of this wall hanging, in alternating crimson and emerald velvet, were sewn not by women, as was typical of Moroccan embroidery, but by professional male needleworkers. That is because this haiti represents the most prestigious and complicated form of textile. The men were under close supervision by the leatherworkers' guild, since the work was so complex it required custom-made leather templates. They stitched around the templates with a special technique known as underside couching that kept the precious gold thread from being wasted on the unseen underside. The interlaced mihrab motif, echoing a mosque's arch-shaped niche, makes this wall hanging a magnificent backdrop for special occasions.
underside couching gold Moroccan mosque mihrab textile