BANDHANA SILKS

Silk fabric woven in the Bombay district on hand looms from Indian silk, and dyed in the bandhana method. By this bandhana method, the white silk fabric is folded into two, four, eight, or sixteen folds, like folding a letter, corresponding with the number of repetitions of the design required. If two " repeats " are wanted, the fabric is folded once; for four " repeats " twice; for eight " repeats " three times, etc. On the uppermost of these folds the design is printed in lines, with blocks, in red ochre mixed with gum arable, and then knots are tightly tied at intervals along the lines with cotton thread, in such a way that when the fabric enters the dye, the dye will not penetrate to the small portion or spot on the cloth around which the thread is tied. The fabric is then " mordanted " with alum and dyed orange. Then another design is printed upon it in the interspaces of the first which remains tied, knots are tied on the second design, and the fabric dyed red. All the knots are then untied, the fabric spread on a small raised platform, and some of the orange spots touched with indigo to make them green. Bandhani is the name of this process in Gujrat, but in Rajputana and Ulwar, where Hindu is spoken, it is Bandhana. (Bandhana means knot tying, and is derived from the Hindu verb Bandhi, to tie.)

This method of dyeing yarns is a hand weaver's industry in India. The dyer takes a small bundle of warp which has been dyed in the lightest colour required in the finished piece, and draws in pencil upon it some lines at measured distances according to the design to be produced. An assistant then ties the silk along the spaces marked, tightly round with cotton thread, through which the dye will not penetrate. It is then dyed with the next darker colour found upon the warp and the process is repeated until the darkest colour is reached. The weft is next treated in the same way in order that when it crosses the warp in the loom each of its colours exactly correspond with the same colour in the warp. These small bundles of warp are then arranged in the loom and the weaver takes the bundles of weft, using each in its own place throughout the design.(see Bandhana Silks)

This method of dyeing yarns is a hand weaver's industry in India. The dyer takes a small bundle of warp which has been dyed in the lightest colour required in the finished piece, and draws in pencil upon it some lines at measured distances according to the design to be produced. An assistant then ties the silk along the spaces marked, tightly round with cotton thread, through which the dye will not penetrate. It is then dyed with the next darker colour found upon the warp and the process is repeated until the darkest colour is reached. The weft is next treated in the same way in order that when it crosses the warp in the loom each of its colours exactly correspond with the same colour in the warp. These small bundles of warp are then arranged in the loom and the weaver takes the bundles of weft, using each in its own place throughout the design.(see Bandhana Silks)