Dyeing of silk with lac dye

Dyeing of Silk with Lac Dye

To extract dye, stick lac is crushed into pieces but not into powder form because at the time of boiling, the sticky resin substance melts and sticks to silk fiber thus damaging the material. These small pieces of stick lac are wetted with water overnight and then churned by which dyes with water come out easily in the form of solution as the dyes are water soluble. It is filtered well and care should be taken that even a small piece of resin is not present in the solution. Depending upon conditions, dyes are extracted from 50% to 98%.

Silk is treated with 2-5% solution( on the weight of the material) of mordant (generally alum) at the boiling temperature for 45-60 minutes. Some times the dyer add turmeric powder (curcuma longa) to get the orange tone. Silk is squeezed only, not washed by fresh water, at this stage. If potash alum is used as mordant then purple color is produced. If copper oxide with ammonia is used then bluish violet is obtained. To get dark red, lead acetate is used, to get reddish yellow, pot. dichromate is used. Copper sulphate produces violet. Barium Hydroxide gives dark red, Tinchloride with Oxalic acid gives pink. Ferrous Sulphate gives a color ranging from grey to black. K2SO4 with Cream of tartar gives violet color.

Dye bath is prepared with the extracted dye solution and rest with water with material to liquor ratio of 1:30. Dyeing is carried out for one hour at boiling temperature. A little solution of myrobalan (Terminalia Chebula retz) is added during the process to achieve greater fastness.

Acidic pH is maintained throughout the process of dyeing and if required the pH is maintained by use of acetic acid. Now dyed material is taken out from the dye bath and washed with fresh water.

About 4-5 kg of stick lack is required for dyeing 1 kg of silk.

Kullu Shawls

Kullu is a place in Himachal Pradesh. It is famous not only for entertainment and beautiful sceneries but also for its traditional textiles named Kullu Shawls throughout India. Kullu shawls are pure woollen shawls having traditional designs.

Kullu shawls are made from woollen yarns. The fibres for this yarn are collected from sheep and then sorted out (near front legs and neck, best quality of wool is found on a sheep) according to color, length, quality and feel. The fibres are processed by domestic methods. Under these methods, the fibres are sorted, scoured  and radical impurities are removed and then these fibres are dyed by tub dyeing method. Then the fibres are spun into yarn by charkha and Takhli. Now-a-days few quantities of silk and cotton are also used for borders, pallau and centre motifs. Somethimes greige fibres are also used to produce produce patterning and motifs.

Though Kullu shawls are produced in different colors like china blue, olive green, maroon coffee etc. but beauty of Kullu Shawls stands only in black shades.

Because Kullu Shawls are not made by big machines, this is an art of hand woven technology. Sometimes Zig-zag effects are also produced.

In Kullu shawls small diamonds, small dots, small squares, small triangles, plus marks etc. are found on the body of the shawls. there may be small lines of patterning on the selvedge or border with matching colors.

Kullu shawls are of woollen yarn of high count and shape just like 10s of cotton yarn. This is optimum to have better quality.

carpets and floor coverings

Panipat is famous for carpets. Regarding the origin of carpets there is no proper clue available in history about when carpet manufacturing had started in India, but it is sure that thousands of years agao, the Rishi Munis used an Ashram Cloth material which is a part of carpt of ancient days. In 15th century, carpets were available in well developed homes.

Though carpets are known as woollen carpets but woollen yarn alone is not able to produce perment structure while working without the help of cellulosic fibres, that is why carpets are woven by woollen and cotton yarns. Carpets of 15th century show that in warp wool is used and in weft cotton is used. It is a style of 'dari'. Now-a-days different types of fibres are used in carpets eg woollen, silk or cotton carpets etc.

Carpets are woven with the help of different techniques. Some of which are given below:

1. Loom carpets are woven in 'dari' style, means hundred percent warping of cotton threads and 100% woollen threads as weft yarn with extra weft yarn for loom weaving.

2. Few carpets are woven with the help of latest machinery, some computerised techniques are used for lifting the yarn and loading the yarn to produce carpet effects.

3. Hand tufted carpets are latest carpets now-a-days. Such carpets are woven with the help of tufting gun. To produce such carpets the base fabric is cotton fabric in dense weave. These carpets are produced by tufting guns according to required design.

Generally loop carpets are produced in very dark and medium colors and light colors are mainly used in tufted carpets. Light, medium and dark all types of colors are used but it depends upon taste of country to country eg. carpets of Germany are usually in medium colors and dark colors, Americans never like purple dark colors while Australians use light colors.

In India floral designs are used very much while in Western countries ( European ) geometric designs and mural designs are liked. Commonly in America the designs of latest inventions are produced on the carpets eg. trains, buses, sea coasts, dinosaur etc. Though carpet is a very much expensive style of weaving as well as precious traditional textile of India.

Kanchipuram Saris

Kanchipuram is a city near Chennai (Madras) in Tamil Nadu. Kanchipuram produces brocaded silks of superb texture, color and lustre, known as kanchipuram Sari.

The raw material for Kanchipuram sari is silk and Zari. The silk is brought in from Bangalore and Zari threads for brocading come from Surat Gujarat.

The main items of production are the silk saris with the solid brocaded borders ('korvai'). The silk is woven on a throw shuttle pitloom with a drawbox harness. Designs and patterns are woven with extra warp and extra weft and are worked into the body of the fabric by means of an indigenous device known as the 'adai' which fulfils the same function as the jacquard.

Kanchipuram Saris in the south Indian style have a pallav and/or borders, that contrast in color to the main field of the sari.

Green, blue, red, yellow, mashroom, orange or purple colors are commonly used with contrasting borders.

On the borders, small flowers, mangoes and geometrical motifs are woven with zari. Pallu is also highly decorative part of the sari. Nowadays, artificial zari is used commonly.