Patola

• There is a large group of Indian textiles, which are patterened by means of resist techniques. These dyeing methods serve to decorate textiles in colours by partially reserving or resisting the fabric before dyeing and removing these afterwards.

• What distinguishes these patterning methods from other is that the ornamented motifs are produced neither by weaving nor by appling them onto the fabric as in painting, applique work or embroidery, but rather that they are left undyed on coloured ground. The process can be repeated for producing multicoloured designs.

• Fold resist dyeing- the fabric is crumpled, knotted or pleated into folds and then dyed. • Stich-resist dyeing-Either folds or pleates are fixed by stiching through them or leading threads through the material in simple running stiches.Then the fabric is pushed or drawn together as close as possible on the threads which are knotted at the end. • Warp-resist dyeing-rolled or folded material is partially wrapped in such a way that no dye can penetrate the reserved places.

• Tie-resist-dyeing-Individual parts of the outspread fabric are lifted and completely or partially tied in such a way that one gets spherical or mould-like forms. Once again the covering act as resist. • Stencil-resit-dyeing-Stencil that prevent dyes from penetrating into the fabric are fixed on it before the colouring is applied. This method however, is more suitable for painting or for spraying the dye on the fabric than for dyeing textiles

• Paste or wax-resist-dyeing-parts of fabric are spreyed, painted or coated with paste, like mud, lime, gum or with molten substances like wax which serves as reserves. • Mordant-resist-dyeing-as against covering the fabric partially to protect it against the dye, one prepares parts of the textiles for dyeing with mordents whilst the unprepared parts donot take on the dye.

• Resist-dyeing of yarn to woven after patterning.-Certain parts of the yarn for warp, weft or both are made to resist the dye by wrapping. This dyeing is carried out on the yarn bundles from which the wrapping is removed after the dyeing. The process may be repeated if one wants to produce multi-coloured patterns.

• If the design should show clear and definite, not diffuse or blurred, patterning the yarn has to be arranged before tying and dyeing in the same way as it will be used in the loom. Only then the motifs will come out clearly. For the same reason one must be very careful not to disturb the arrangement of the yarn and to avoid displacing it during the dyeing process and later in the loom.

• With in the subcontinent the cloths produced by this yarn resist work are called • Bandha, • Patola • Telia rumal • chitka

• Patan Patola of Gujarat is the most extraordinary woven saree woven anywhere in the word. • Here the technique is that both the wrap and the weft threads are tied in areas where the original is to be retained and then dyed.

• They continue to tie the threads from the lighter color to the darker color until the final patter is dyed on to the un-woven thread. After this both tied and dyed weft and wrap threads are wove and design emerges.

• Internationally this technique is known as ikat, derived from a malay word “mengikat”, meaning ‘to tie’ or ‘to bind’. The finest example of ikat known in the world is the patola of Patan, which is the double ikat, where the wrap and weft is the tied and dyed before they are woven. The pattern emerges as the wrap is laid out and then gets brilliantly delineated when the weft is thrown across.

• Salvi communities, who weave the patola in Patan, have perfected this technique where double ikat is still practiced. • Patan used to export patolas from ancient times to the Far East. In Cambodia, Thailand and Indonesia the patola played an important part in rituals and ceremonies and became integral part of their lives.

• The sarees have patterns like the • pan bhat, leaf pattern, • the nari-kunjar-jhar, lady, elephant and plant motif, in closed in a border or a jal, trellis work pattern. • Chhabadi bhat, basket design • chowkdi bhat, square or lozenges, pattern with flowers in each corner

• ratan chowk bhat, the jewelled square • raas bhat, the circular dance design • vohra gaji bhat, the design woven for the Vohra community, and many others.

• Ikats created by dyeing the warp are the easiest to make. Before the warp strings are attached to the loom they are arranged into bundles. Each bundle is tied and dyed separately, so that a pattern will emerge when the loom is set up. This takes a good deal of skill

• The tightly bound bundles are sometimes covered with wax or some other material that will keep the dyes from penetrating. The process is repeated several times for additional colors.

• Ikat weaving is done in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. In Pochampalli, Andhra Pradesh it is known as pagdu bandha baddabhasi or chilka. The finer tie and dye patterns earlier woven in Chirala were woven in geometric patterns, known as telia-numal. The origin of this style is not known; some trace it to Gujarat, others to Orissa.

• Yet another possibility is that it might have been developed in Jalna, since the rumals were used by the fishermen on the coast. In rural areas people still use the rumal as turban as and upper cloth called baddabhasi. The telia rumal used to be exported in large quantities the Gulf countries and Africa.

• In 1955-56, Pochampalli was a poor isolated village with not even a road. Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, who was the Chairman of the All India Handicrafts Board went by jeep to Pochampalli. They persuaded the weavers to weave the first cotton saree of 60 counts, which proved to be very popular and the weaver seized the opportunity to begin producing sarees.

• Later the Board sent two weavers to Varanasi to study silk weaving and this resulted in the production of ikat work silk sarees, for which the demand has been growing steadily.

• Today Pochampalli is a prosperous village and a few master weavers are also copying the Patan patola. The weaving of ikat furnishing is now done in the entire Nalgonda district and involves nearly 18,000 looms

• Orissa has a distinctive style of ikat known as bandha. In this tradition the single ikat is worked in the warp and the borders are prepared separately.

• The Sambalpur Vachitraouri sarees has an extra warp pattern on the body and an Hand-Printed, Dyed and Painted Fabrics extra warp pattern on the pallu, while the shkarpara designs of squares of different colors-white, red and black-are in double ikat.

• The famous silk ikat sarees of Navapatan combine woven patterns on the border and pallu. They also wove calligraphic ikat shawls with verses from Geeta Govinda, which were offered to Lord Jagannath at Puri.