The threads of each state speak volume about their cultural heritage. Handlooms are an important craft product and comprise the largest cottage industry of the country. Millions of looms across the country are engaged in weaving cotton, silk, and other natural fibers. There is hardly a village where weavers do not exist, each weaving out the traditional beauty of India’s own precious heritage.

Craftspeople of India, use an astonishing range of skills to process raw materials and produce regionally distinctive dyes, weaves, prints, and embroideries.

I have gathered a few blocks across culture and weaved a visual treat for the ethnic wear lovers.

Kalamkari- Andhra Pradesh

This one is my personal favourite 🙂 –Kalamkari or qalamkari, meaning drawing with a pen, is a type of hand-painted or block-printed cotton textile, produced in parts of India and Iran. Kalamkari specifically depicts epics such as the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Purana’s, mythological classics and recently added technique to depict Buddha and Buddhist art forms leave you speechless… Kalamkari only utilizes natural dyes, with a variety of patterns obtained using seeds, leaves, flowers, and plants.

Team up your sarees with floral kalamkari printed blouses, or plain kurtas with buddha art kalamkari cotton jacket and get that distinctive look.

Ikat- Odisha/Gujarat

Ikat, or Ikkat, is a dyeing technique used to pattern textiles that employ resist dyeing on the yarns prior to dyeing and weaving the fabric. In Ikat, the resist is formed by binding individual yarns or bundles of yarns with a tight wrapping applied in the desired pattern. The yarns are then dyed. The bindings may then be altered to create a new pattern. A characteristic of Ikat textiles is an apparent “blurriness” to the design.

A palazzo or straight pant stitched with ikat material, adds grace to any plain kurta.

Bagh Print – Madhya Pradesh

Bagh Print is a traditional hand block print with natural colors, an Indian Handicraft practiced in Madhya Pradesh. Its name is derived from the village Bagh on the banks of the Bagh River. Bagh print fabric with replicated geometric and floral compositions with vegetable colors of red and black over a white background is popular. The prints have a distinctive muted loveliness which mimics the best and most sophisticated screen printing.

Bagh printed sarees are extremely soft and manageable, Ideal for office wear.

Madhubani- Bihar

Madhubani Painting is done with fingers, twigs, brushes, nib-pens, and matchsticks, using natural dyes and pigments, and is characterized by eye-catching geometrical patterns. There is ritual content for particular occasions, such as birth or marriage, and festivals, such as Holi, Surya Shasti, Kali Puja, Upanayana, Durga Puja.

Be it on a fabric or in a form of sheer painting, the Madhubani painting is one of the very detailed forms of art, known as the reflection of beliefs and thoughts.

Bagru- Rajasthan

Bagru Print is known for natural dyes and hand block printing. Bagru prints have ethnic floral patterns in natural colors and are most famous for its typical wooden prints. These prints of Bagru are acclaimed all over India. Patterns in rich colors like the indigo blue, iron block and bright yellow are produced on coarse cotton cloth by indigenous processed of dyeing and printing. In building up patterns, geometrical forms are adopted along with floral, animal and bird forms. Everything is inspired by local sources.

Indigo sarees are very famous pick from this form of art.

Warli Art- Maharashtra

Warli painting is a style of tribal art mostly created by the Adivasis from the North Sahyadri Range in India. Warli Painting is traditional knowledge and cultural intellectual property preserved across the generation. The Warli culture is centered around the concept of Mother Nature and elements of nature are often focal points depicted in a Warli painting. Warli artists use their clay huts as the backdrop for their paintings, similar to how ancient people used cave walls as their canvases.

Warli painting is a very prominent form of art, usually in a triangle or circle form. This tribal art design adds ethnicity to any fabric.

The list could be endless, as when I started exploring about the rich Indian textile heritage,I got lost in the various forms of mind-blowing arts prevailing over the centuries and so much hard work involved in making each art alive leaves you awestruck.

This one for our Rich Indian Heritage!! Incredible Weaves of India!!

#priyankaspen

#myvirtualsiyahi

source:Wikipedia