Notes on Various Traditional Textile Clusters of Orissa

Orissa is rich with its textile heritage. As depicted by the picture above, a diversity of traditional textile products are obtained from the region. Saris in particular find a new language here. A variety of sarees from Ikat to traditional Jaala ( simplified jacquard) can be obtained from here. Here is a brief outlook of the various traditional clusters.

1. Pitala Cotton Sarees

These are simplest sarees from Orissa and are used in the daily work. These are characterized by a simple Ikat pattern at the border, pallu and butis in the body.

2. Berhampuri Silk ( Patta) Saree with Phoda Kumbha

Phoda Kumbha is a technique of producing temples at the border with the help of three shuttle technique.

These Sarees are produced by Bangalore Silk ( 2-4 ply organzine) in the warp and Malda Silks ( 4-8 ply Charkha Silks).

3. Dhalapathar Sarees

Please have a look at this link. 

4. Bomkai Sarees

Bomkai Cotton and Silk Sarees are known by the elaborate thread work. These can be compared to the Balucahris of Bengal.

5. Nuapatna Tie-Dye or Khandua Sarees vs. Sambalpuri Sarees

Nuapatna sarees are also known as Khandua Sarees.

These sarees are characterised by the characteristic ikat patterns. The main difference between Nuapatna and Sambalpuri  sarees is that the sambalpuri sarees have more elaborate and dense Ikat patterns, thereby making them more clostly. Also Sambalpuri Silk Sarees Use Mulberrry x Mulberry yarns ( 3 ply x 3 ply) and thus have a weight of 650 to 700 grams. Nuapatna Silk sarees use 2 Ply Bangalore x 3 ply Malda Silk with a weight of 380-450 grams.

In cotton Sambalpuri Sarees the count is about 2/120s x 2/140s or 2/120s x 2/120s with a reed and pick of 72 and 76. Whereas in Nuapatna it is 2/100s x 2/100s, 2/80s x 2/80s or 2/100s x 2/80s with reed and pick of 64 and 72. One warp for Sambalpuri is only 2-4 sarees; whereas for Nuaptna, it is upto 30 sarees.

Nuapatna Cotton

Sambalpuri Cotton

6. Pasapalli Sarees

Pasapalli Sarees are those woven in the town of Bargarh. They have patterns inspired from those of chess board. The weave is used as Double Ikat in the typical Sambalpuri Style

7. Habaspuri Sarees

The design of Hawaspuri sarees are inspired from the designs of Kalahandi.

8. Dongria and Siminoi Sarees

These sarees are produced in the Nuapatana cluster of Orissa. they have a characteristic woven pattern at the Pallu produced by local jacquard or Jaala. Click here to know more about them.

9. Tussar Ghicha Saree

Apart from this, Gopalpur village specializes in making Tussar Ghicha sarees, with temples at the border created by tye-dye techniques. The Pallu has usually Ikat horizontal patterns, either in Sambalpuri or in Nuapatana styles.

Count, Construction and Width of Common Hotel Linens

What is Thread Count

Thread count is a term used in bed sheets and bed covers. Thread count simply means how many threads are there in one square inch of the cloth. Thus it is the sum of Ends per inch and Picks per inch.

Bed Sheets 

Yarn Count- 40s x 40s
Thread Count- 200 and above

Single Bed Sheet is normally comes in 90" x 108". Double Bed Sheet comes in 108" x 108".

Weave Pattern - Plain weave or satin, sometimes satin stripes are usd.

Bed Spread

Size: 108" x 108" and 90" x 108"
Normal grammage for single bed cover is 880 grams, and double bed cover is 980 grams.

Duvet Cover

Thread Count: 200 and above
Size : 61" x 91"

Here is a list of all the items

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Is GI Working in Indian Traditional Textiles ?

In a thought provoking and I would say "disruptive" paper, author Aarti Kawlra, makes some important points citing Kanchipuram Sarees. I have experienced the same while buying sarees for my company.

GI has worked in both ways. On one hand, it has provided some standard under which the quality of a particular nomenclature of textile can be evaluated. On the other, it has given rise to a whole bunch of manufacturers, who have subverted the spirit of GI.

The author has argued that GI in Indian context is arguably useful as it is a highly segmented market and manufacturers have to make a balance between the quality and saleability and thus their sustainability.

The author says that it is the way in British Rule, where the "traditional" fabrics were fixed to a particular area.

The fact that material, processes and place are fixed means to disparage innovations and imitations as deviant and spurious.

She pointed out that even the material specifications as mentioned in the GI journals, specifically Kanchipuram Sarees are not adhered to. Eg. for Kanchipuram saree, the zari should have 78% silver, 21% silk, and 1% gold, which are impossible to comply with. The "Zari Mark" of cooperative society has stipulated as 40% silver, 35.5% copper, 24% silk and 0.5% gold.

Also the Korvai ( Three Shuttle Technique ) of weaving sarees is declining as the process is vary much combersome.

So because of fixing of attributes of sarees, there is a spawning of a whole genre of products knows as "Duplicate Sarees", which have all the features of the Kanchipuram sarees as mentioned in the GI, which have everything except compromise on three cost raising features- zari, silk and Korvai.

GI has transformed manufacturing hubs from "spaces of production" to "places of origin".

Source: http://125.22.40.134:8082/jspui/bitstream/123456789/888/1/29_Aarti_Kawlra.pdf 



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Photoblog- Visit to Pochampally Park

Photoblog- Visit to Textile Clusters of Indore, Dhar and Maheshwar

Route to Bagh is breathtaking. In the background are seen the windmills. The road is newly laid and extremely well built.

These are a common site in Bagh. The printing is done with natural colors and ingredients like myrobalan. The red is developed with Alum by boiling in Alizarin ( an ingredient of Alum). It is also known as alizarin printing. It is said that the minerals dissolved in the Bagh river provide that extremely rich red color to the fabric. The printing is done on cotton, chanderi, Maheshwari, Modal Tussar and Mulberry.

Printing is done with hand. All the three blocks gad, reikh and datta ( daat ) are used.

There are lots of words of wisdom you will find on the local shops, the above notice says "loan is a magic, we give you and you will get vanished....." so true sometimes !!!!

Visit to Maheshwar is inspiring. The township is reverberating with the sweet sounds of handlooms. A neat and clean place with an all pervasive presence of Ahilyabai Holkar dynasty, which is reflected in their philanthropic institutions.

Maheshwari is a fabric in silk and cotton. The difference from Chanderi, as we are told is in the count of weft and twist constructions of warp. In chanderi twisted yarn is used in the warp. Also in chanderi 100s count is used whereas in Maheshwari 80s count is used. But the real difference is in the woven border of chanderi, the inspiration from which is taken from the carvings of the Ahilyabai fort.

The picture above indicates the dobby used to create the famous Maheshwari Border.

So the iron frames are used to hold the handloom together. Look at the way the warp are arranged.

Look at the way the indigenous drop box motion is provided on the loom to change the shuttle.

Here we can see that gears are finding their way in to handlooms to make the process of weaving faster and painless.

It was enlightening to address a group of weavers. A great job is done there by the Handloom School. It was amazing to see how this next generation of weavers is evolved to take on this e-commerce revolution.

Watching Narmada at the sunset was a treat

It was great to see ambar Charkha spinning Khadi at Womens Weaves

Back in Indore, chance to see the Indigo Alizarin Process of Tarapur Cluster

Chance to Meet Sattar Bhai, doing Dabu with hand block printing

This is not all, in the next blog will write about my learning on the various borders in Maheshwar.

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Two Million Page Views...and counting !! Thank you Readers !!!

I thank all my viewers for helping the blog reach this magical figure. Your constant encouragement, feedback and suggestions help me keep on writing !! Thanks a lot !!!

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Why Handlooms are Dying in India- An Economic Argument

This is an adaptation to the answer to the post submitted on facebook by a reader:

Some people say that handlooms in India are dying and the reason is the emergence of powerloom and MNREGA. I agree with them that there is an imminent death of the handloom sector, but the reasons are different than what they site. Powerlooms and MNREGA are just alternatives they have for the handloom. The reasons are purely economic. One, switching of weavers from handloom to powerloom is just analogous to our switching to smart phone from your old phone for the simple reason that it is more efficient and productive. So a weaver, when he finds that the product of a powerloom is not so much different or even better from the point of view of the returns for his family, he will switch to alternatives like any rational human being. Running a powerloom is not as as simple that one relegate the task to some less skilled person. A break in powerloom whether warp or weft can ruin a whole product for the simple reasons that by the time it is noticed and the machine is stopped, a lot of picks have already gone by resulting in a patta or chira as the case may be- of course I am talking about the primitive powerlooms prevalent in our country without the warp or weft stop motions.

They also say that to protect the handlooms they are offering weavers twice the usual wages. However, their offering of double or even triple wages help a little, as their baseline wages are so small in relation to the effort involved that doubling or tripling may not help much.

Khadi sector is already diluted as the “amber charka” is like a mini ring frame taking its inputs from the mill product- roving. Only difference is that it has more defects and it is S-twisted. Genuine Charkhas produce so little that it is only used on the national days.

I feel it is our greed- the high profile elite consumers- that we let the weavers stick to the handloom when they have much better alternatives including powerloom. Let us not bind them into their age old professions for our greed by throwing them with yarn subsidies and increments in wages which are abysmally low as compared to their efforts. And they are realising that which is the effect you are witnessing across all the clusters. We need to remember that while business is talking numbers, they are also understanding numbers and taking actions which are good for their survival. Lets not make them the slaves of the handloom in th name of protecting the handlooms. 

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What is the Most Eco-friendly Fiber

How do we measure Eco-friendliness

A worldwide known measure is the estimation of Carbon Footprint for a particular activity. Carbon Footprint is the  amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result of the activities of a particular individual, organization, or community.

Measuring carbon footprint of textiles fibres involves the energy needed to make that fiber and then energy needed to weave that fiber into the yarn.

The following table gives an idea:

Energy used in MJ per kg of fiber

1. flax fiber: 10
2. Cotton: 55
3. Wool: 63
4. Viscose: 100
5. Polypropylene: 115
6. Polyester: 125
7. Acrylic: 175
8. Nylon: 250

Interestingly Cotton emits 5.90 ton of CO2 per ton of spun fiber. The same values for organic cotton ( India) are 3.80 and 2.35 respectively.

Thermal energy required per meter of weaving of cloth is 4,500-5,500 Kcal and electrical energy required per meter of cloth is 0.45-0.55 kwh and is independent of the nature of fiber. 

Processing of fibers, however, use a lot of chemicals and copious amount of water. 

Source

http://timeforchange.org/what-is-a-carbon-footprint-definition
https://oecotextiles.wordpress.com/2011/01/19/estimating-the-carbon-footprint-of-a-fabric/

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Technology of Charkha Spinning

This document is for textile technologist. You can download it from   here  or from here.

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What is the difference between Khadi and Handloom

Khadi means a cloth woven on Handloom using Hand –Spun Yarn. Handloom means cloth woven on Handloom using Mill-spun yarn.

Khadi cloth is generally much more porous. This gives Khadi a soft and well ventilated feel. The twist of the hand woven yarn is generally less than that of mill yarn. This less twist helps improve its absorption properties.

Yarn spun on Charakhaa has a twist in the direction of letter 'S'. If we twist the yarn in the direction of normal tightening of the right handed screw, the yarn gets more twist. ( The mill yarn has an opposite twist in the direction of letter 'Z').

Interestingly the count of Khadi is measured in km/kg or N/m. The general relationship between Nm and English count is 0.59 x Nm. Thus khadi that is sold in the khadi store as 250s count khadi is actually 250 x 0.59= 147s count, which is also very good.

Generally 1 meter of roving is converted to 20 m of yarn for Amber charkha.

It would be curious to know that one tree yields 1-2 kg of raw cotton. 40% of it can be used for spinning. As a thumb rule, from 1 kg of yarn of 40s count we can weave 7 to 8 sq meter of cloth ( of course, it also depends upon the reed and pick).

As a trivia, it takes 5-6 hours on Amber charkha to make a yarn required from 1 sq meter of cloth. One weaver family can weave about 200-250 meters of cloth per month.


Source 

Watch this movie on Khadi

and this movie

This movie narrates self employment through Khadi:

http://www.kvic.org.in/kvicres/images/KHADI_Englilsh_Compress.mp4 

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