Hold the Navy Tassel Mirror Work Earrings at arm's length and the mirrors read as points of light. Bring them close and you see something else: a ring of thread around each disc, holding it to the fabric. No glue. No claw setting. Just stitches, worked so they cross over the edge of the mirror and grip it like a hand closing around a coin.
That ring of thread is the whole craft. It is called abhla bharat in Gujarati, shisha work in Hindi, and it has been practised in Kutch for roughly four hundred years.
What is mirror work?
Mirror work is an embroidery technique in which small reflective discs are fixed to cloth entirely by thread. The word abhla comes from abhlo, Gujarati for mica, the mineral that supplied the first mirrors. Shisha is simply the Hindi and Persian word for glass.
The essential point, and the one most descriptions skip: the mirror has no hole in it. There is nothing to sew through. The artisan must build a frame of thread across the face of the disc, then anchor that frame to the fabric around it. The mirror is trapped, not attached.
Where it comes from
Mirror work reached Kutch and Saurashtra somewhere around the seventeenth century, most likely carried by Persian artisans who settled in the region. It landed in a place that already had a deep embroidery culture. The mochi community, shoemakers who also worked on royal textiles, and the Kathi cattle-breeders who settled across Saurashtra each had their own established needlework vocabulary. Mirrors were absorbed into all of it.
What resulted was not one style but many. Kutch embroidery is really a family of regional and community styles, each with its own stitches and rules: mochi bharat, heer bharat, soof, kharek, paako, rabari. Several of them use abhla. A trained eye can look at a piece of Kutchi embroidery and name the community that made it from the stitch alone.
Why mirrors, though?
The practical answer is that they catch light beautifully in a landscape that has a great deal of it. The older answer is protection. Across much of western India, reflective surfaces were believed to turn away the evil eye by throwing a malicious glance back at its owner. Mirrors went onto the clothes of children, onto bridal wear, onto the torans hung above doorways, onto the cloths that covered a bullock at festival time. The most vulnerable and the most celebrated got the most mirrors.
There is also the plain matter of visibility. In desert light, at dusk, across a crowded fairground, a garment covered in abhla announces itself. Anyone who has watched garba under string lights knows exactly what mirror work is for.
How a mirror is stitched down
The working side, where the criss-cross holding grid and the tracks of the needle stay visible.
1. The mirror is cut. Traditionally these were hand-blown glass spheres, silvered inside, then broken and cut into discs. Edges were never perfectly round. Modern machine-cut mirrors are uniform, which is one of the ways older pieces are dated.
2. A holding grid is laid. The artisan works four to eight straight stitches across the face of the mirror, crossing them so they form a rough web. This grid does nothing decorative. It exists purely to stop the disc sliding.
3. The frame is built. Working around the circumference, the needle catches the grid threads and the fabric alternately, pulling the web outward into a ring at the mirror's edge. Row by row the grid disappears under a dense collar of thread.
4. The surround is embroidered. Chain stitch, buttonhole, satin and running stitch radiate outward, tying the mirror into the larger pattern so it reads as part of the design rather than an object placed on top of it.
A skilled hand sets a small mirror in a few minutes. A heavily worked Kutchi bridal piece can carry several thousand of them.
Hand-set shisha vs glued imitation
Hand-set on the left, glued on the right. The difference is at the rim: thread crossing the glass, or nothing holding it but adhesive.
Mirror work sells, so it gets faked. The shortcuts are easy to spot once you know where to look.
Look at the edge of the mirror. Real abhla has visible thread crossing over the rim of the disc, forming a collar. Glued mirrors sit clean and bare, or are ringed by a machine-stitched loop that does not actually touch the glass.
Check the reverse. Hand embroidery leaves a working side: thread paths, knots, the tracks of the needle. Glued or machine-set mirrors leave a smooth back, or a layer of adhesive and backing fabric hiding the mechanism.
Look for variation. Hand-cut mirrors differ in size and roundness across a single piece. Perfectly identical discs in perfectly even spacing means machine work.
Press gently. A hand-set mirror has a fraction of movement inside its thread collar. A glued one is rigid, and often makes a hard click against a fingernail.
The instinct behind these checks carries across every hand process. We use the same logic for bandhani, woven ikat and handloom cloth.
How to wear mirror work now
The old instinct with abhla was more: mirrors massed across a full skirt or a bridal blouse. Worn that way today it can read as costume. The contemporary approach is to isolate it.
Keep mirror work as the single reflective thing in an outfit. A pair of mirror-work earrings against a plain kurta in a solid colour will carry an entire evening, whereas the same earrings against a sequinned outfit simply disappear into the noise. Navy, ivory, black and deep green are particularly good grounds, because mirrors need contrast and shadow to read as light rather than as sparkle.
For festive dressing, mirror work sits naturally alongside the bangle and earring pairings we use through Navratri. For everyday wear, one small mirror-work piece with an otherwise quiet outfit is usually the right amount.
Caring for mirror work
- Hand wash only, in cool water with a mild detergent. Machine agitation loosens thread collars.
- Never wring. Press the water out between palms or a towel.
- Dry flat in shade. Hanging pulls the weight of the mirrors against the stitching.
- Iron on the reverse, always. Direct heat on glass can crack it and will scorch the thread.
- Store folded with the mirrored surface inward, or wrapped in soft cloth, so discs do not scratch each other.
- If a thread collar loosens, have it restitched early. One loose mirror puts strain on its neighbours.
- For spills, spot-clean the fabric around the work rather than soaking it. Our stain removal guide covers embroidered pieces specifically.
Why we use it
We work in Ahmedabad, a few hours from where this craft has been practised for four centuries. Using abhla in our jewellery is not a nod to a trend; it is the nearest living textile tradition we have. The Navy Tassel Mirror Work Earrings set hand-fixed mirrors against deep navy fabric and a tassel fall, so the mirrors read as points of light rather than as a surface. It is the same reasoning behind our use of hand block-printed Ajrakh and handwoven ikat: we would rather carry a technique than an imitation of one.
More on our makers and materials in how we make things.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between abhla bharat and shisha work?
None, in practice. Abhla bharat is the Gujarati name and shisha is the Hindi and Persian one. Both describe mirrors fixed to cloth with thread.
Are the mirrors in mirror work real glass?
Traditionally they were mica, then hand-blown silvered glass. Most mirrors today are machine-cut glass or acrylic. Acrylic is lighter and safer for jewellery; glass reflects more sharply.
Is mirror work only from Gujarat?
It is most strongly associated with Kutch and Saurashtra in Gujarat, but it is also worked in Rajasthan, Sindh and parts of Pakistan, each with distinct stitch traditions.
Can mirror work be washed at home?
Yes, by hand in cool water. Avoid machine washing, wringing and direct ironing, all of which stress the thread that holds each mirror in place.
How can I tell if mirror work is handmade?
Look for thread crossing the edge of each mirror, slight variation in disc size, and a worked reverse side. Glue, uniform discs and a clean back indicate machine production.
Related reading
- What is bandhani? Gujarat's tie-dye craft, and how to spot a real one
- What is Ajrakh? The ancient block-printing technique behind our stoles
- Handmade jewellery online in India: how to judge craft, quality and price
- Navratri earrings and bangles: the complete styling guide
See hand-set abhla up close on the Navy Tassel Mirror Work Earrings, or browse the full earrings collection.