Once again new avatars of the Pochampally Ikat are here for you to explore. In softer mercerized cotton sarees and in an amazing blend of color and creativity, along with the ever popular ikat weave in single and double versions, it is definitely something worth spending one’s time and money on.
Brought out by Unnati Silks in a whole lot of new designs, they fixate the gaze of the beholder and beckon forth to come, dig and delve for this festive season.
What’s new in this range?
- As mentioned there are both the single and the double ikat versions, on soft and smooth mercerized cotton, woven by the enthusiastic and ever devoted weaver and craftsmen of Pochampally, Telangana.
- Three things stand out by way of intentional arrangement. The main body has from near plain with lightly distributed motifs on the body to largely covered ikat weaving designs that are very attractive because of the judicious combination of colors. The borders are wide and on both top and bottom sides. From simply plain to sprinkling ikat woven motifs to parallel thin line borders, it has a captivating presence that beckons forth the buyer and gets onlookers to stare bewitched. Some Ganga Jamuna versions are really very attractive.
- The pallu is very visible and demarcated by the sharp contrasting change in color and look. If the body is ikat filled, the Pallu is plain to simply designed in self color and vice versa. The temple design that appears in some portion or the other in the area in different ways gets added looks.
- One of the features of allure besides the ikat weaving itself is the arrangement in rows, arrays, geometrical shapes etc. Motifs get aligned in formations of diamond, square, rectangle, star, combined star and other popular shapes that make the overall appearance magnificent. Add the choice of colors like red, black, white, green, yellow, blue, green in beautiful combinations in body and border and contrasting with the pallu color, it is innovative and magnetic.
- Yes, the fabrics have the Handloom Mark are 100 % pure cotton and being mercerized there is a noticeable sheen that sometimes glistens.
- The focus of this whole lot of exquisitely colored sarees in light to pastel colors, in good combinations with the familiar ikat showing up on the body, and the pallu and sometimes the border as well, is creativity and color play that has been successful to a large extent. The response that has been good and the ideas gathered in interactions with customers have given new pointers to similar future experiments.
The rich tradition of Pochampally
Pochampally, in Telangana, India, is well-known for its Pochampally brand of sarees online, the base fabric being cotton, silk or a blend of the two. The exquisite finish of the Pochampally sari comes through the dyeing and weaving of pre-coloured threads which are dyed according to the Ikat or Ikkat technique.
The special technique of the Pochampally cotton saree
The Ikkat technique involves applying bindings which resist dye penetration to the threads in pre-determined patterns and then dyeing the threads. These threads are then woven to produce the desired pattern. When several colours are used, the dyeing process on the threads is repeated for each of the colours chosen. Then the fabric is woven with the multi-coloured threads into the pattern. Within the ikkat style of dyeing are methods of single-ikkat and double-ikkat.
Single ikkat has two variants – warp ikkat where the warp threads are dyed after applying resists according to pattern on the warp threads. After that, only, is the weaving done. In the weft ikkat it is the weft threads which are coloured by applying resists before the dyeing and then weaving is done.
In either case the dyeing is done prior to the weaving so carefully that the pattern emerges as the weave progresses. In the double ikkat method both the warp and weft threads are dyed before weaving.
Alternatively, in the tie-dye method it is quite the reverse of the Ikkat style of dyeing. Here the threads are first woven and the resist bindings then applied to the fabric before dyeing it.
Attractive features of the Pochampally saree
The painstaking efforts of the weavers in maintaining the purity of dyeing and weaving, including the control and placement of threads during the weave contribute largely to the complexity of the weave patterns and pleasing appearance of the sarees. Colours that are employed for the dyeing of threads are fast and well-chosen. No wonder the outcomes of the Pochampally sarees display an extraordinary ethnic skill that is hard to match. Trending in Pochampally handloom sarees are ethnic patterns, shiny zari borders and designer pallus with stylish designs and colourful prints.
The Pochampally fabric has ever been popular and sought for because of the culture of variety and change in the fabric offerings that set expectations high. The range of this new lot has certainly turned many a head for its novel presentation; imaginative and delightfully expressive.