Traditional Crafts used in the Collections

G-20 Fashion Home Page | Vayu (Air) | Shuchi (Fire) | Dhara (Earth) | Jal (Water) | Nabha (Sky)

Craft Name: Brocade
Location: Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh/ Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu/ Upadda, Andhra Pradesh/ Baluchari, West Bengal/ Ashawali, Gujarat
Community: Not Specific
Similar Crafts in the world: Brocade weaving in China, Japan, Tibet, Bhutan etc.

In Varanasi silk weaving is part of an old and highly skilled tradition. It has a significant status because of its use during rituals. Varanasi is known for its superb weaving in gold and silver threads in variety of styles, colors and techniques.

Brocades are silk textiles woven with extra warp and extra weft of different colors with gold and silver zari threads. The weavers and their skilled associates use traditional naksha loom attached with jaala or jacquard. Brocade weavers, also called nakshaband have practiced their craft since the reign of Muhammad Bin Tughlaq in 1325 AD.

Kimkhab, a fabric made with one of the best-known Varanasi brocade weaving techniques, has extensive zari work which is much more prominent than its silk ground.

Process:

Reeling: Preparing yarns for weaving

• The yarn is reeled separately for tana (warp) and bana (weft).
• The warp yarn is reeled on a big cylindrical frame, generally 30 meters in length.
• Yarn for the weft is reeled on small cylindrical bobbins called nari in a process known locally as ‘nari bharana’.
• The weft-yarn is used in a shuttle called ‘dharki’, which is thrown from one side to the other side while weaving.
• A charkha (spinning wheel), now made up of a bicycle rim and a paddle, is used for winding the yarn on nari (bobbins) and is usually done by women.

Dyeing:

• Silk yarn undergoes a pre-treatment process carried out with boiling soap water to remove extra sericin, increase pliability, and give the saree a smooth and shiny texture.
• It is then bleached and dyed, in the intended color.
• Usually, dyeing is done manually with acid dye.

Pattern Making:

• The designs are drawn on grid paper.
• A set of perforated cards (a kind of binary system) is made as per the design repeat. These are called ‘naksha patta’.
• Each card corresponds to a single line of weaving.
• A design generally involves a few hundred cards. These punched cards are characteristic of the Jacquard loom.

Weaving:

• The weavers of the Benaras generally use old pit loom for weaving sarees, brocades and other products.
• On these conventional looms, jacquard or jaala is used to create patterns using extra weft.

Source :
Handmade in India, Aditi Ranjan & M. P. Ranjan
Crafts Atlas of India : Jaya Jaitly
https://www.dsource.in/resource/weaving-craft-varanasi/process
https://www.utsavpedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/6-e1473912913392.jpg

Craft Name: Mashroo
Location: Patan, Gujarat
Community: Khatri
Similar Crafts in the world: Himroo

The word mashru/ mashroo literally means “permitted”. The fabric was created for Muslim men who were prohibited from wearing pure silk. It is woven with a mixture of cotton and silk on pit loom to give a rich satin finish and was traditionally used for blouses and skirts by women in Saurashtra and Kutch. The patterns include ikat stripes and a cluster of dots. Mashru cloth is woven in bright colors, the most common being golden yellow, red and black.

Process:

• Mashru fabric is made using satin weave by interlacing silk and cotton yarns.
• The warp is prepared using Silk.
• Cotton makes the weft, or the horizontal yarns while silk is used for the warp, or the vertical yarns.
• While weaving, each silk yarn goes above five or eight or more cotton yarns (depending on the interlacement of the particular satin weave used) and under one cotton yarn, giving an appearance of a shiny surface made up of silk on one side, while the underside of the fabric is cotton.
• Since the structure of the fabric allows for more yarns in a given area, it also makes the fabric stronger.

Source :
Handmade in India, Aditi Ranjan & M. P. Ranjan
Crafts Atlas of India : Jaya Jaitly
https://gaatha.com/mashru-patan-gujarat/#:~:text=Mashru%20fabric%20is%20made%20using,warp%2C%20or%20the%20vertical%20yarns
https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/0*mjP2SXokqNhbhUGP.jpg