Length of decorative fringe made of silver-gilt tinsel twisted with silk thread, Madras, 1855This decorative golden fringe was made for embellishing dress or textiles. To make tinsel, bars of silver or silver gilded with gold leaf were drawn through increasingly small holes in iron plates in a process called wire-drawing. Once the desired thiness of the wire was achieved, it could be hammered flat to create long strips of tinsel. The tinsel could be used flat, or wrapped around a silk core to make metal-wrapped thread (zari). This strip of fringe was made by plaiting tinsel into a band of silk thread.Rolled length of decorative fringe made of silver-gilt tinsel twisted with silk thread