BANDHANI CHANDERI SILK SAREE

Bandhini silk sarees are one of the oldest form of tie & die art which began about 5000 years ago. The art of Bandhani is as exciting as it’s history. The fabric to be dyed is tied very tightly at different points in knots and then dyed with extraordinary colors. When this tied cloth goes for dyeing, these threads or knots doesn’t let that part catch color & allows it to stay white or whatever color the cloth has. Once the cloth is dyed, it is left for drying in open air. Dyeing is accomplished by the tie-resist method where the patterns are made up of innumerable dots and weaves respectively. Usually men do the dyeing while women do the tying, which is most painstaking with each dot being as tiny as a pin-head. The cloth is first washed and bleached to prepare it for absorbing the dyes. After this, it is then sent to the bandhani, the women who do the tying, lift small portions of the fabric and tightly tie a thread around it. The more minuscule the raised Bandhani – tied textile fabric, the finer the bandhana. The tied textile is then dipped in a light colour first while the tied areas retain the original ground colour. If a second dye is required, the areas to be retained in the first dye are tied for resist and the cloth dipped in a darker dye. This process is repeated, if several colours are to be combined. Drying can take some time depending upon the weather conditions. In monsoon, it takes around 2 days to dry while in summer it takes only 4-5 hours. In winter it takes around 6-7 hours for drying.