Ikat is a precision dye technique


Single Ikat


In Ikat weaving, the design is done by careful dyeing of the warp and weft. First a design is drawn and the warp and weft threads are carefully measured, tied and placed in the dye solution. For fabric of different colours, the ties are removed and the warp is retied and dyed again to create layers of colour.


Plainweave ikat fabrics, due to the unique resist patterning, look the same on both sides of the fabric; there is no right side and wrong side to the cloth.


Ikat fabrics are woven by hand on narrow looms in a labor-intensive process. They are generally 45” to 48” wide. Handwovens, free of the chemical additives and stresses of power-loom production, are vastly different in appearance and feel from machine-made fabrics.






Double Ikat


Warp and weft silk threads are tied separately with cotton thread on the portions already marked out in conformity with the proposed design in the fabric. This tied portion is meant to remain unexposed to the colour while dyeing. United portion which has absorbed one colour, may be tied while dyeing in another colour. Tyeing untying, retying and dyeing in different shades are the main features of this process.


After completion of dyeing work of warps & wefts, the threads of the warp of different repeats of a pattern are put together in a sequence on the loom, so that the design becomes visible. The threads of wefts are wound on to bobbins and kept in the bamboo shuttle for weaving process.


The patola is woven on a primitive hand operated harness loom made out of rosewood and bamboo strips. The loom lies at a slant, with the left side being lower than the right side. The bamboo shuttle is made to move to and fro through warp shades. Each weft thread is thoroughly examined and matched with each part of the warp design pattern while weaving.





The tension of the warp threads are removed by the help of needle after every time weaving of 8" to 10" of fabric. Patola weaving is a highly accurate just a positioning of warp and weft of similar colour to obtain perfect design and harmony.The process is labour intensive, time consuming and requires high order of skill and dexterity.


It takes three to four months to prepare tie- dyed design on warp and weft threads for one sari of 6 yards length by 48" width. Two Salvis (weavers) working together weave just about 8" to 9" a day. It takes 40 to 50 days to weave a sari. Thus 4 to 5 persons take a periods of 5 to 6 months to complete a sari depending on the intricacy of the design.

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Kalamkari

Kalamkari is an ancient form of block printing originated from Machilipatnam,formerly known as Masulipatnam in Andhra Pradesh. This complex procedure is a combination of hand block printing and painting. Firstly, floral motifs are carved on wooden blocks. Then the fabric is washed and bleached to remove impurities so that the dye adheres perfectly on the cloth.

Alum is used to fix the colours on the cloth.Wax is used as a resist agent when a combination of colours is used on one particular design not allowing the colour to run over other designs. The outline of the design is drawn using a pen made of an iron loop attached to a bamboo stick and the wax resist is then hand printed on the cloth. Then the cloth is allowed to dry and later the wax is removed by boiling. Colouring is done using a brush and then the cloth is dried.

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Silk



Pure Silk
Is the finest form of silk where an intricate weaving of the yarn results in a smooth sheen and finish on the fabric. Silk fibers are boiled with washing soda for about one hour, in order to soften and get out glues. Then we use synthetic dyes to get coloured fibers and treat it by soaking the fibers into rice liquid, step, dry under direct sun light, and then treat again. Drying of the fibers happens at this stage.Shake the fibers after dried,and dry again.


Put the fibers into a big bobion,spin and prepare the warp.We then set up the loom and weaving is done.





  Matka Silk
Is a textured, thick, slubby silk that causes no harm to the silk worm/moth. The cocoons are collected after the worms have departed naturally: hence we refer to this silk as ‘Vegetarian friendly’. Because the worms break out of their cocoons (as opposed to the more usual process of boiling the cocoons with the worm still inside), the yarn from the cocoon becomes broken into short fibres and therefore has to be hand spun back into a continuous thread before it can be woven. This spinning creates a textured yarn which is often thicker than that normally associated with silk. The distinctive irregular finish of this heavyweight fabric is achieved by hand spinning the short ends of silk filament into a thick yarn—without first removing the natural gum from it, which is otherwise typically done. It has an almost tweedy appearance.

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