About - House Of Bandhani

History

Bandhani (बांधणी) is a type of tie-dye textile decorated by plucking the cloth with the fingernails into many tiny bindings that form a figurative design. The term bandhani is derived from the Sanskrit verbal root bandh (“to bind, to tie”). Earliest evidence of Bandhani dates back to Indus Valley civilization where dyeing was done as early as 4000 B.C. The earliest example of the most pervasive type of Bandhani dots can be seen in the 6th century paintings depicting the life of Buddha found on the wall of Cave 1 at Ajanta. Bandhani is also known as Bandhej Saree, Bandhni, Piliya, and Chungidi in Tamil and regional dialects. Other tying techniques include Mothra, Ekdali and Shikari depending on the manner in which the cloth is tied. The final products are known with various names including Khombi, Ghar Chola, Patori and Chandrokhani

Our company Ganesh Mal Sagar Mal Jain started around 180 years back dealing only in cotton prints. Our founders had an urge to serve the traditional Indian market and get the villages of India to the limelight of the global textile market. We then started working our roots to villages across North India. We diverted to Bandhani and Leheriya due to changing market demands and now have one of the largest distributor chain in the industry. We currently have our artisans based at Sikar, Fatehpur, Ramgarh, Churu, Jhunjhunu , Laxmangarh, Kutch and Jamnagar.

To serve the new online demand of Bandhani and Leheriya we are now launching our new age online shopping portal House Of Bandhani.

THE ART OF BANDHANI MAKING

One of the oldest traditional crafts practiced in Gujarat and Rajasthan, Bandhani is a technique of resist dyeing which is made by tying the cloth into many small bindings to protect it from the dye.

Printing

In Bandhni Art many fabrics can be used like cotton, silk, wool, nylon. Fabric is to be spreaded on wooden table and a thin transparent sheet of plastic is placed, which has pin holes over the dyed area of the fabric. Artist uses ‘Gheru’ or Red oxide mixed with water to make the design patterns of dots. Then, the plastic is taken off the table.

Tying

Now imprinted fabric is given to the Bandhni craft person. They use their fingers and thumb to tie knots. The decorative designs indicated by artists are sized and skillfully tied with thread.

Dying

After the knots have been tied, the small portion of fabric is covered by water proof material as per the color selections. Covered fabric will resist the dyeing color. Then fabric will be dipped into hot water. Color will be added in the water. Artists’ uses wooden stick or hand gloves to soak the fabric in hot water. The small area below the thread resists the dye, thereby, leaving an undyed dot. The entire process is usually executed in several stages, which starts from a light color and gradually moving to a darker one.

Rinsing

Then the fabric is rinsed in plain water to remove the color impurities and again washed into the corn flour water to make the fabric soft.

Drying and Opening of Knots

Fabric will be dried in sunlight. Dry fabric is ready to use but before that Artist stretched the fabric to remove knots. All the knots will get removed by stretching them and beautiful color dots of numerous patterns will be created.