Brocades
- 2. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CENTRES OF PRODUCTION THREADS USED DYES USED COLOUR USED MOTIFS USED DESIGNS OF BROCADES TYPES OF BROCADES WEAVING OF BROCADES REFERENCES
- 3. INTRODUCTION India’s “Fabric of Dreams” is of course the Banarasi brocade known as Kinkhab. Banaras (Varanasi) is commonly known as Shivanagri situated in U.P. Banaras is world famous centre of handmade textiles. With its interweaving of coloured silk and gold threads, to form the most attractive floral designs, the brocades are without doubt India’s most gorgeous, most fascinating, of silken fabrics.
- 4. The Indian kinkhab is literally a ‘cloth of gold’. In days gone by, gold and silver wires of such extreme fineness were drawn that the whole fabrics could be woven from them, without any other kind of thread, literally glittering with the metallic sheen. The use of silk, or a mixture of cotton and silk, in the weaving of the brocade seems to have been a fairly recent innovation. Delicate designs are created by the use of warp and weft threads of different colours.
- 5. CENTRES OF PRODUCTION The spiritiual home of Indian brocades is Banaras(Varanasi). Other centres are: Ahemdabad Aurangabad Delhi Lucknow Bhopal Murshidabad Thanjuvar (Tanjore) Tiruchirpalli Madras Surat
- 6. The exquisite piece of brocades presented to Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to India in 1962, was woven by the master weavers of Surat.
- 7. THREADS USED Both silk and metallic threads are used in weaving of brocades. The metallic threads are used to decorate and silk yarns are used to provide body and colours to the fabric. The metallic threads used in brocades originally, known as KALABATTU, was of pure gold and silver wire. But nowadays artificial metallic thread “zari” is used. There are two types of Kalabattu: 1.Sonari (sona): the base of thread is silver and at the end gold was glided on it. 2.Ruperi (rupa) : it is made up of silver wire twisted around the silk thread.
- 9. DYES USED In olden days dyes from vegetable origin were used by Direct Dyeing Method, which produced fast colours that lasted after years of wear. Also raw silk was better adopted to natural dyes. But with the introduction of chemical dyes, dyeing of wide variety and unlimited shades of silk has become possible.
- 10. COLOURS USED Traditional Banaras saris usually have subtle colours which may be quite pale. The colours used are : English names Vernacular names Red surkh Blue asmani Orange narangi Green kahi Mustard kafoori Yellow zard White safed The colours used did not have any significance. But with the introduction of synthetic dyes the colours and shades have increased widely.
- 11. MOTIFS USED Most of the brocades usually have moughal designs influences. Commonly used motifs are: Animal motifs : peacocks, hunting scenes, deer, tiger, elephant, swan etc. Floral patterns : poppy, rose, jasmine, lily etc. Motifs like paisleys and god krishna & gopis are also used.
- 12. The pallu, anchal or border of brocade sarees have a number of ‘buta’ or designs of plants, arranged side by side, or a group of ‘butis’, or springs, or flowers all over the field of saree. A characterstic motif found along the inner edges of borders is a narrow fringe like pattern that looks like a string of upright leaves and is called Jhalar meaning frill.
- 13. DESIGNS OF BROCADES Shikarghar is one of the most popular designs of Indian kinkhabs and has hunting scenes as the dominant motif. Other designs are : Buti : single flower or spray Buta : large butis like pan(beetle), tara (star), asharfi (coin), and kari (mango). Phulwar : a floral pattern running all over the field. Jali : scrolls or lines forming a network of sprays of flowers. Chand Tara: moon and stars Dhup chaon: sunshine and shade.
- 15. Mor gala: peacocks neck. Bulbul chasm: nightingale eyes Doriya : longitudnal warp wise strips. Salaidar : weft wise stripes. Charkhana : stripes running both longitudinal & across Are-doriya : diagonal stripes Bel : floral running scroll border. Minatashi : the field is of gold or silver and the floral design in coloured silks.
- 16. TYPES OF BROCADES Generally speaking the kinkhabs can be of four types: 1.OPAQUE ZARI BROCADE : there are many variations of this brocades : a) the pure ‘cloth of gold’ or ‘cloth of silver’. b) brocades in which the gold and silver thread plays the most important part, with coloured silks interwoven here and there to emphasise the design. These are the true kinkhabs of India perhaps too heavy for making personal garments.
- 17. c) Baftas: also called Pot thans that are mostly of closely woven coloured silks, with only selected parts of the design in gold or silver threads. 2. Ab-e-rawan: these are lightese of brocades and are transparent, made up of silk muslin or organza with very little metallic threads. 3. Tissue brocades: It has very fine silk warp but the weft thread of the ground is of zari, giving a cloth a metallic sheen. 4. Amrus and Himrus
- 18. BROCADE SAREES
- 19. HIMRUSAn inferior type of brocades is the himru, a speciality of Hyderabad and Aurangabad in which both silk and cotton yarns are used to produce variety of designs and is woven on the principle of extra weft figuring. It is in popular demand because of its low price as compared to pure silk brocades. Also it is soft to feel,and is suitable as a fabric for personal wear than the true brocades. In the past, two varieties of himrus were best known, Gulbadan and Shah Muhammad. Today, the himrus are chiefly used for blouses and cholies dress material for the Western fashion world, and as furnishing fabrics for the home.
- 20. AMRUS Amrus are the brocades in which the patterns are created by supplementary weft in silk and not in zari. One distinctive type of Amru brocade is the Tanchoi. It is believed that in last half of the 19th century, 3 parsi brothers called chhois learned the technique of weaving these brocades in China and introduced it to indian weavers in Surat. This art was then taken over by varanasi weavers who started making less expensive versions. Tanchoi is a figured silk having complex weave as it has one or two warp and two to five weft colours often is same shed. It is densely patterned, heavy fabric.
- 21. WEAVING OF BROCADES The process of weaving brocades is intricate and elaborate. It takes six to eight months to weave gracefully designed brocades. Traditionally, the design of brocade was first worked out on paper. An expert called Naksha bandha rendered the design into cotton threads or a Naksha was prepared. The looms were used by team of weavers and assistants. Today, the jacquard loom has replaced the use of the naksha.
- 22. WEAVING PROCESS
- 23. REFERENCES: Masterpieces of Indian Textiles – Rustam. G. Mehta Handicrafts of India – Kamladevi Chatopadhya The Sari – Linda Lynton/ Sanjay. K. Singh Banaras Brocades- A Historical Perspective, An Unpublished Dissertation – Geeta Mishra (1990) www.google.com/Brocades of Banaras.