The Embroidery Archive
← Karkhana
№ 08

Chain Tatami

A continuous chain worked back on itself, into a low braided ground.

02 — The Story

Chain Tatami works a continuous chain stitch back and forth until the fill takes on a low, braided relief.

It is the house signature, and the first ground every karigar must earn before moving to finer work. The chain must stay perfectly uniform in loop and tension across the whole passage, or the braid falls out of rhythm and the surface loses its quiet regularity.

Simple to name, and among the hardest to keep flawless.

03 — Macro Study

Read as museum plates — the stitch at the scale of the hand that made it.

Plate i — Thread Direction & Density

A continuous chain is worked back on itself, link after link laid in one direction until the fill takes on a low, braided relief.

Plate ii — Surface, Layering & Light

Each loop catches light differently from its neighbour, so the surface reads as a fine woven texture rather than a single flat colour.

04 — Crafted Into

Where this technique lives in the collection.
05 — Related Techniques
№ 01
Tatami Floral
→
№ 11
Linefill
→
№ 09
Cross Stitch
→

A single line, repeated with devotion, becomes a ground.