The art of Weaving! Tie and Dye weaving in handloom Industry

A fabric woven with Tie and Dye technique(warp&weft)

 Tie and dye  weaving is widely used in handloom industry for producing saree,dhothi
and other dress materials.It is a skillful and laborious technique that requires a lot of experience and of course patience!.

In handloom industry the yarn is used in hank form.The yarn intend for tie dye is scoured and bleached in order to get a bright color.If it is required, a base color is given (usually a lighter shade)to the yarn in hank form.Then the yarn is warped to the required  number of ends and required length.The warped yarn is stretched to length and the places required to reserve with the base colors are tied up with rubber bands/polythene covers(usually used for cold dyeing) firmly to prevent the dyes entering in to that area.To get a check or stripe pattern the accurate places must be tied for both warp and weft.If more than  two colors are required the rubber bands or polythene  must cut according to width of each color.Suppose it is required to dye 10cm grey color and 20cm green color,the the rubber bands or polythene must be cut 10 cm and 20cm,while dyeing the grey color the green color portion is covered with 20 cm rubber band and vice versa.
Naphthol dyes were used for tie and dye in olden days due to its simplicityof application and can be dyed in cold water at room temperature.Nowadays it is less used due its azoic content.
While weaving the check patterns care must be taken by the weaver to coincide each color.It is possible to adjust the weft manually to coincide the patterns.