Tie and Dye Products

While wandering into a market, does vibrant colors of laheriya saris, rainbow-tinged turbans, and dotted odnis fascinates you? If yes, than you must visit the colorful land of Rajasthan as this state is famous for these kind of specially designed clothes.

Rajasthani men and women loves to wear, colorful saris or turbans or odnis that are embellished with various symbols of dots, squares, waves and strips. These clothes are designed according to ancient art form known as Bandhani art work. It is also called as a tie and dye art work.

Now, you must be thinking what is a tie and dye art or Bandhani art work? It is traditional form of art work that is mostly done in Rajasthan and Gujrat. Jaipur, Bikaner, Udaipur, Ajmer cities of Rajasthan and Jamnagar of Gujrat are the most famous places in India, where thousands of craftsmen still preserves and practices this art form with utmost enthusiasm. Both in Rajasthan and Gujrat, each area, each caste and each tribe has their own special designs.

As the name suggests, Bandhani art work derived its name from Hindi term Bandhan that means tying. It is a special form of art which is done in two stages. At first, the clothes are tied with threads following a special designed and than dipped into tanks of dark vibrant colors.

The main colors used for Bandhani art work are yellow, red, green, and black that are made up of natural elements. No light colors are used in this form of coloring clothes. Dark black or red is used as a background color. Nearby towns of Jaipur such as Bagru and Sanganer are popular for intricately designed Bandhani clothes. People of Chhipa community are best known for this form of art work in entire Rajasthan.

Bandhani art form is not a difficult technique of creating patterns. If an intricate design is being made it can be tedious and time consuming. At first a piece of cloth is bleached, then folded into two or four layers. Thickness of the cloth decides whether it can be fold into two or four layers. The layout of the pattern is then marked by wooden blocks dipped in a burnt sienna color, mixed with water. The area which is not to be dyed is then tied up with a thread. Then, the folds of the material within a small motif is lifted up and tied. Each section is dipped in liquid color and tied again to bring about a contrast.

Special significance are related with each form of Bandhani design or pattern. Some popular designs or patterns which are used in Bandhani art work are Chandokhni and Chikhara-these designs are used to make the attire for brides, Barah baag- this design looks like a garden when opened up. It is a complex but beautiful pattern. Basant bahar is another designs that depicts the vibrant flowers of spring season, another Bandhani art work is Mor zad- it displays a peacock pattern. Last but not the least, Chokidal. This design shows squares with elephants and other animals etc. The patterns which includes human and animal figures are that takes the longest process to decorate.

Nowadays, Bandhani art work is also use in various women attires such as skirts, dupattas, lehengas, salwars and kurtas etc.