Resist dyed fabrics

Resist dyed fabrics The oldest form of designing with colour is resist dyeing. Having perfected the art of dyeing, it must have been discovered that if certain parts of material were prevented from absorbing the dye, it would retain its original colour and thus appear designed. The resist material could be thread, pieces of fabric, or substances such as clay and wax that offer physical resistance. The most common method of resist is tying with thread.

There are two methods of tie and dye fabrics produced in India; fabric tie and dye and yarn tie and dye. In both cases the part where design is required, is tied up by tightly winding a thread around it and dyeing. During the dyeing process, the tied areas retain the original colour of the ground. On drying, some tied up parts are opened and some more tied and dyed again.

The process can be further repeated for more colours, always proceeding from light to dark colours. Tie and dye has a ritualistic significance. Among the Hindus, the thread tied around the wrist before any religious ceremony is white, yellow and red tie-dyed. Tie and dyed fabrics are considered auspicious for marriage ceremonies; the dress of the bride and turbans of male members are generally of these fabrics.

(i) Fabric tie and dye: Bandhani, chunari, laheria are some of the names of materials in which the pattern is created by tie-dyeing the fabric after it is woven. A typical tie and dye design is bandhej where the patterns comprise innumerable dots; another is the laheria type where the pattern is in the form of diagonal stripes. Gujarat and Rajasthan are the homes of this type of fabrics. (ii) Yarn tie and dye: This is a complicated process of producing designed fabrics.

These are known as Ikat fabrics. Fabrics are produced by a technique in which the warp yarns or filling/weft yarns or both are tie-dyed before weaving. Thus, when the fabric is woven, a specific pattern appears depending on the dyed spaces of the yarns. If only one yarn, i.e., only warp or weft yarn is tie-dyed, it is called single Ikat ; if both yarns are so treated, it can be combined Ikat (both are creating separate patterns) or double Ikat (a unified pattern is created).

The Ikat artisan is not only proficient in the art of dyeing; she/he also has the technical knowledge of weaving. The process consists of calculating the amount of warp and filling yarns required for the article to be made. The tying of the yarn and weaving it after dyeing require great expertise so that warp and filling yarns match to produce the design. Gujarat has the richest tradition of Ikat weaving.

Patola is the most colourful double Ikat sari made in silk. Its manufacture is concentrated in Patan, in Mehsana district. Apart from geometrical design patterns inspired from local architecture, other designs are flowers, birds, animals and dancing dolls. The colours most commonly used are red, yellow, green, black and white.

They tend to flow into one another without the harshness of outline. I kat F abrics I kat F abrics Orissa is another region where Ikat saris and fabrics of cotton and silk are produced. The process here is known as Bandha , which may be single or combined ikat . Compared to Patola , the designs here have a softer and curvilinear quality.

They are also characterised by the addition of extra weft yarn woven in small figurative designs. Pochampalli and Chirala in Andhra Pradesh have the tradition of production of cotton ikat fabrics called Telia Rumals . These were designed – cms. square pieces of fabric usually woven as a pair.

The coarser ones were used as lungis , shoulder cloth or loincloth by the fishermen community and the finer ones as dupattas or veils.