The Craft
Dabka Embroidery
Dabka is the art of coiling fine metallic wire across the surface of fabric to build up a rich, three-dimensional texture. Thin copper or gold-coloured wire is wrapped tightly around a core thread, then couched onto the cloth in dense spirals and contours — the result catches light differently at every angle.
It is a slow, exacting craft: a single garment can hold hundreds of metres of wire, each strand placed by a single pair of hands.