Artistic Weaving Printing & Painting
Silks of Bengal were much acclaimed the world over, since ancient times. The
most well-known Bengal Silk saree, which carry its legendary name, is the Baluchari
saree - a product of exquisite design, and fabulous weaving technique. A revival
in recent times of both the Baluchari and yet another outstanding, traditional
Bengal Saree, the Daccai, has led to nationwide and worldwide popularity and
renewal of interest in Bengal silks.
Like silk, cotton sarees are also woven in a fascinating and exquisite range.
The Daccai ‘Jamdani’ is a fabric on which the designs are raised in
inimitable style. The ‘Batik’ prints originating from Javanese wax-designing,
revived in Santiniketan. Floral forms circular ‘kalka’ shapes, pyramidal
and variations of geometric designs are typical. Handloom still remains the
great employer in rural Bengal. Today hand-painted scrolls also silk-screened
and printed are quite popular as wall hangings etc.
Shantipur in Nadia; Begumpur, Rajbalhat and Dhanekhali in Hooghly; Kenjekura
in Bankura; Fulia, Guptipara and Samudragarh in Nadia and Burdwan - are the
homes of these legendary weavers.
Needlework & Embroidery
Delicate silver needles, flashing fingers, moving dexterously on cloth - it’s
a bewitching world. The ‘Kantha’ of Bengal, somewhat in the class
of the English quilt, is an all-purpose wrap, superbly stitched together from
pieces of garment: for use as bedspreads (Sujni Kantha), mirror-wraps (Arsilata)
and the like. Multiform designs fill every segment, pocket and compartment.
They run along the borders, illuminating the edges. Except for the straight
kantha stitch, it is customary to represent illustrations from well-known epics
such as the Ramayana or Krishnalila, and also legends evolving from folk-rituals
of Bengal (Vratas). The results are products of art-consciousness and creative
aptitude in symbolic communication. Figures or complexly stitched and bespectacled
with colour, the lotus as the central point in the kantha from which the design
spreads - all are redolent with meaning.
Most importantly, the ‘kantha’ is a creation of the essential female
- the mother, the wife, the sister and the loved one. It is her eye, her emotions,
her skill that gives us this exotic example of needlework and embroidery rolled
into one.
Interested
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