In the Zmijanje highlands above Banja Luka, women embroider without a drawn pattern. One deep indigo wool thread, bleached homespun linen, and a counted square grid: crosses, hooked branches and zigzags improvised stitch by stitch until they assemble into diamonds.

The system inherits that discipline. One ground, one thread colour, and density as the only variable — sparse field, dense band, solid block, stepping in discrete jumps. Corners sit at zero because cross-stitch cannot curve.