Tie and dye
Tie and dye
- The technique of resist dyeing by knotting individual areas of a fabric is usually known in India as bandhani or bandhej.
- This technique is also referred by the south east asians as plangi, and in Japan it is known as shibori.
- There is no evidence to say when bandhini cloths were first made in india.
- Our early evidence for the use of these cloths in india is depicted on the walls of the ajanta caves.
- Before the process the fabric needs to be bleached.
- To achieve the symmetry and to save time the cloth will be folded in to two or as many folds wil be given if it is a fine fabric.
- The method more often used nowadays is for the designer to draw the design or block print it on the fabric using charcoal or chalk powder.
- The fabric will be pinched in a series of dots along the line.
- The most widely used element in bandhini are the simple dots called bindi which is formed by pinching and tying the fabric.
- Square and round motifs are common which is usually called laddu and dabbi.
- The cloth can be dyed before tying which gives a variety of colored dots.
- Another method of colouring dots is to dye the thread and wrap it around the cloth while it is wet.
- Usually thin cotton or malmal can be used for this process as the dye must penetrate the whole tightly roed fabric.
- The dye used today for all type of bandhini work are amost synthetic
Traditional Indian Bandhani
History of Ikat Textiles
- The term ikat is from the Malay- Indonesian word called “Mangikat”. Which means bind or knot around.
- Ikat or resist dyeing involves the sequence of tying and dyeing sections of bundled yarns prior to weaving.
- Single ikat: Either warp or weft threads are tied and dyed prior to weaving.
- Combined ikat: Both warp and weft ikat exist in different parts of the fabric occasionally overlapping.
- Double ikat: It is the most complex form in which both the warp and weft yarns are tied and dyed before weaving where both axis mesh exactly to form a compete motif or a pattern.
- Many of the world’s ancient culture practiced single ikat but the most complex double ikat exist only in India(patola).
- The famous Patola weaving is known for its colorful geometrical pattern
- These patterns were discovered in the 16th and 17th century paintings in the south indian temples and places like Tiruchirapalli.
- Rare musical instruments are wrapped only with patola fabric.
- In India specially in Gujarat patola have been worn in the form of saree by women of high social standings.
- It symbolized wealth, and culture which is worn during marriage or festivals.
- They are also used as coverings for royal elephants and horses or hangings in temples.
- Patola fabrics are considered to be pure and auspicious was worn by the king every morning for his visit to the temple.
- The time taken to compete one patolu from pre-loom to post-loom stage takes six months.
- In 1900s it was fashionable for ladies from wealthy families of Hyderabad to wear ikat dupattas to cover themselves.
- Dark areas on these fabrics were embellished with intricate motifs embroidered with cotton, silk, silver and gold thread.
- Ikat mashru textiles were also believed to have been woven in Hyderabad during the Nizam period.
- During the 1950s the ikat technique spread to pochampalli which is one of the leading producer of double ikat today.
- Pochampalli specializes in silk saris of both single and double ikat for the urban and semi urban market.
- Today Andhra Pradesh is the largest exporter of ikat fabrics from India.
- Ikat technique
- Ikat or yarn resist dyeing involves the sequence of tie and dyeing sections of bundled yarns to form some colour scheme or pattern prior to weaving.
- The beauty of the fabric is its blurred fuzzy appearance .
- Ikat patterns are also done by pulling sections of dyed yarns and the most common patterns are diagonals, chevrons.
- The vegetable dyes are now changed to chemical dyes.
- The process of degumming and bleaching will be done before starting with dyeing.
- Thw warping will be for 19 mts which is equal to 3 saris.
- For design formation they maintain a graph sheet.
- The dye pattern starts with red, yellow, green, blue and black will be achieved by over dyeing.
- Two persons will be involved in the process and only 4 to 6 inch of fabric will be woven per day.
Ikat Mashru textiles
- This textile developed after the Muslim conquest of north India.
- The specialty of ikat mashru textile is its silk warp and cotton weft.
- These shimmering semi precious fabrics was woven in Patna and Surat.
- Mashru means “ permitted” were worn by orthodox Muslim men who were forbidden to wear pure silk for some reasons.
- To simulate the silken effect mashru fabrics are woven in satin weave where the cotton yarns will be inside and silk yarns outside.
- The most striking features of this fabrics are the bright colorful stripped band.
- It became rare to find ikat mashru fabric these days.
- At present there are 400 looms in Patna and according to Indian census 35,000 meters is produced in Patna annually
Ikat Mashru Textiles