Megan Park - Embroidery, Beads and New Delhi

Today we travel with Megan Park to New Delhi and tour through some of the markets and delightful bead stalls. Megan also shows us some of the process behind designing the embroidery for her beautiful pieces. [Good luck tonight at LMFF Megan!]  - Jenny x

Much of what we do comes alive when we are in India. Our company is unique for the reason that we spend and invest so much development time working at the source of where the collection comes together – namely New Delhi. I have been working with the same company to produce my collection since we began 15 years ago. I feel amazingly privileged to work alongside the artisans who produce our collection. They really are the most talented and highly skilled in their field.

Beads!! Stings and stings of beautiful beads at the New Delhi bead market

Megan working alongside one of 'kurigers' in New Delhi on an embroidery design

When in Delhi I work intensively on the creation of the embroideries with each and every bead being instructed alongside our team of ‘kurigers’. Often I will arrive in Delhi with only a very loose idea of the direction of the collection however I immerse myself into the bead market for a day and collect kilos of beads and materials which  I then in turn bring back to begin our creations.

Each design is traced out by hand for embroidery to be applied

Some embroideries will take more than a week to develop a tiny swatch but once I am satisfied with it there is nothing more satisfying than this process.

- Megan x