Indian Heritage Fabric Crafts
Chanderi Sarees
Chanderi sari is a traditional sari made in Chanderi,Madhya pradesh, These chanderi saries produce three kinds of frabic i.e pure silk,chanderi cotton and silk cotton.Traditional coin,Flora art,Peacocks and geometrices are woven into differnt chanderi patterns. The weaving culture or tradition has been avaliable from 13th century Kalamkari
Bandhani
The art of Bandhani is a highly skilled process. The technique involves dyeing a fabric which is tied tightly with a thread at several points,thus producing a variety of patterns
The main colours used in Bandhani are yellow, red,blue, green and black. Bandhani work, after the processing is over, results into a variety of symbols including, dots, squares, waves and strips. Bandhani pieces can be dyed by natural and artificial colours. The main colours used in Bandhani are natural. In fact all colours in bandhani are dark, no light colour is used, and the background is mostly in black / red cloth. A meter length of cloth can have thousands of tiny knots known as "Bheendi" in the local language . Four bheendis are known as a "Kadi". These knots form a design once opened after dyeing in bright colors. |
Phulkari
The word phul means flower and kari means craft, thus its name, literally means floral work or floral craft.(Punjabi: embroidery technique from the Punjab region (divided between India and Pakistan) literally means flower working, which was at one time used as the word for embroidery, but in time the word “Phulkari” became restricted to embroidered shawls and head scarfs. Simple and sparsely embroidered odini (head scarfs), dupatta and shawls, made for everyday use, are called Phulkaris, whereas garments that cover the entire body, made for special and ceremonial occasions like weddings and birth of a son, fully covered fabric is called Baghs("garden") and scattered work on the fabric is called "adha bagh" (half garden). this whole work is done with white or yellow silk floss on cotton khaddarh and starts from the center on the fabric called "chashm-e-bulbul" and spreads to the whole fabric.The main characteristics of Phulkari embroidery are use of darn stitch on the wrong side of coarse cotton cloth with coloured silken thread. Punjabi women created innumerable alluring and interesting designs and patterns by their skilful manipulation of the darn stitch. The base khaddar cloth used in Western Punjab is finer from those of Central Punjab.In Phulkari embroidery.The most favoured colour is red and its shades Chikankari
Chikankari - the process of chikan - was basically invented in Lucknow. It developed quickly during the period when theMughals ruled and consisted of styles inspired by Persians.Chikankari is a delicate and artfully done hand embroidery on a variety of textile fabric like muslin, silk, chiffon, organza, net etc. White thread is embroidered on cool, pastel shades of light muslin and cotton garments. Nowadays chikan embroidery is also done with coloured and silk threads in different colours to meet the recent fashion trends and keep chikankari up-to-date Banarasi sareeThe Banarasi saris are among the finest saris in Indiaand are known for their gold and silver brocade or zari, fine silk and opulent embroidery. The saris are made of finely woven silk and are decorated with intricate design, and, because of these engravings, are relatively heavy.
Their special characteristics are Mughal inspired designs such as intricate intertwining floral and foliate motifs, kalga and bel, a string of upright leaves called jhallar at the outer, edge of border is a characteristic of these saris. Other features are gold work, compact weaving, figures with small details, metallic visual effects, pallus, jal (a net like pattern), and mina work. |
Kantha is still the most popular form of embroidery practised by rural women. The traditional form of Kantha embroidery was done with soft dhotis and saris, with a simple running stitch along the edges. Depending on the use of the finished product they were known as Lepkantha or Sujni Kantha.
The embroidered cloth has many uses including women's shawls and covers for mirrors, boxes, and pillows. In the best examples, the entire cloth is covered with running stitches, employing beautiful motifs of flowers, animals birds and geometrical shapes, as well as themes from everyday activities. Themes include human beings, animals, flowers, geometric designs and mythological figuresThe stitching on the cloth gives it a slight wrinkled, wavy effect. Contemporary Kantha is applied to a wider range of garments such as sarees, dupatta, shirts for men and women, bedding and other furnishing fabrics, mostly using cotton and silk. Kutchi embroideryThe best known of the Kutch embroidery techniques is Aribharat, named after the hooked needle which forms the chainstitch. It is also known as Mochibharat, as it used to be done by mochis (cobblers)
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