Zari is gold, and zardozi embroidery is the glitteringly ornate, heavily encrusted gold thread work practised in Delhi and a few other cities of India. Zari threads are used extensively in handloom and powerloom saris, which are manufactured all over India. Either real silver thread, gold-plated thread or an imitation, which has a copper base gilded with gold or silver colour, is used for zari work.
Traditionally made for Mughal and Rajput nobility, it has now been officially adopted as bridalwear. Nowadays synthetic or 'tested' zari embroidery is done. Cast metals are melted and pressed through split steel sheets, to be converted into wires. Then they are hammered to the required thinness. Plain wire is called badla, and when wound round a thread, it is called kasav. Smaller spangles are called sitara, and tiny dots made of badla are called mukaish.
Associated to appliqué, gota work involves placing woven gold cloth onto other fabric to create different surface textures. Kinari or edging is the fringed or tasselled border decoration, predominantly practised by Muslim craftsmen.