A ‘hand-loom’ is a loom that is used to weave cloth without the use of any electricity. Hand weaving is done on pit looms or frame looms generally located in weavers’ homes. Weaving is primarily the interlacing of two sets of yarn – the warp (length) and the weft (width). The equipment that facilitates this interlacing is the loom.
The USP of hand-looms are their unique and intricate designs with their organic colors! Now-a-days designers are doing a great job of creating amazing designs using the hand looms and making them look much more beautiful! Designers like Shravan kumar, Anisha vuppala, Debashri Samantha, Diksha khanna, Preetham Jukalker, Shilpa reddy etc are mesmerizing us with their comfortable yet chic designs for every occasion.
The hand loom experience (soft, comfortable and durable) is due to the human handling of the yarn in the weaving process. As a result, yarn and the fabric are much less stressed and damaged. Hand woven cotton is known for its breath-ability as compared to mill made cotton. This implies that it allows more air penetration making it cooler, softer and more absorbent. It keeps you cooler in summers and warm in winters.
Ikat : In India, Pochampally is the place where you can find the Ikat weavers in Telangana and also in Orissa and Gujarat! Ikat is an Indonesian language word, which depending on context, can be the nouns: cord, thread, knot and the finished Ikat fabric as well as the verbs "to tie" or "to bind". It has a direct etymological relation to Javanese language of the same word. Thus, the name of the finished Ikat woven fabric originates from the tali (threads, ropes) being Ikat (tied, bound, knotted) before they are being put in celupan (dyed by way of dipping), then berjalin (woven, intertwined) resulting in a berjalin Ikat- reduced to Ikat.
Jamdani : The Jamdani weave is of Bengali origin! It requires a lot of time and labor to create this weave. Jamdani is rich in motifs And one of the finest muslin textiles produced in Bengal. Jamdani, an extra weft technique is used to create patterns across the fabric. Each buti or pattern has to be worked on the loom by hand to create the pattern. The Jamdani technique is done in many ways depending upon the size and repeat of the pattern across a given length. It is a laborious process and is an example of high skill in weaving.
Kuppadam : Kuppadam, a weaving technique using three shuttles is practiced by weavers to create solid body and borders. Generally, one shuttle is used in weaving and this is thrown across the fabric width to create lengths of fabric. Two extra shuttles are used to create three distinct parts in one width of the fabric. Today, this technique is used mostly by weavers in Srikakulam and Mahaboobnagar districts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana respectively!
Petu/Dobby : Petu, an extra warp technique, which is also called dobby technique is used by weavers to create patterns in the borders of sarees and dhoties. It is one of the most popular techniques for creating patterns. The weaver sets the pattern according to the size and proportion of the design in ratio to the yarn thickness and number of yarns used in the width. The dobby set up on the loom will help the extra warp threads to be lifted automatically by the weaver while weaving.
Malkha : Malkha, a pure cotton cloth made directly from raw cotton, is getting itself heard. And admired. Malkha cotton production has its roots in initiatives that followed droughts and consequent impoverishment and trail of suicide deaths of farmers in Andhra Pradesh in the late 1990s and into the middle of the past decade.
Indebted farmers and weavers were left burdened with degraded and poisoned land loaded with pesticides while monocropping had resulted in an empty food basket. A combination of agencies and the Malkha Marketing Trust took on the task of preserving traditional techniques and indigenous cotton seed varieties.
Malkha is pure cotton cloth made directly from raw cotton in the village close to cotton fields and combines traditional Indian principles of cloth making with modern small-scale technology. Malkha is energy efficient, avoids baling and unbaling of cotton by heavy machinery and unnecessary transport. The lack of heavy and intense industrial processing results in Malkha having a beautiful texture, is soft, and keeps its shape for ages.
Not only that, in order to preserve and promote this handloom, designer Shilpa reddy, has made an entire collection and displayed them in paris !
Khadi: Yarn spun by hand is known as “hand spun yarn” and yarn spun by machines is called “mill spun yarn”. Fabrics woven out of hand spun yarn on handlooms are called “khadi”, while mill spun yarn woven on handlooms are called “handloom” fabrics.
It is a whole movement started by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The Khadi movement promoted an ideology, an idea that Indians could be self-reliant on cotton and be free from foreign cloth and clothing.
British were selling to them very high cost cloths. The British would buy cotton from India at cheap prices and export it to Britain where it was woven to make clothes. These clothes were then brought back to India to be sold at hefty prices. The khadi movement aimed at boycotting foreign goods including cotton and promoting Indian goods, thereby improving India's economy. Mahatma Gandhi began promoting the spinning of khādī for rural self-employment and self-reliance (instead of using cloth manufactured industrially in Britain) in 1920s India, thus making khadi an integral part and icon of the Swadeshi movement. The freedom struggle revolved around the use of khādī fabrics and the dumping of foreign-made clothes. When some people complained about the costliness of khadi to Mahatma Gandhi, he started wearing only dhoti.
At present, handlooms are back in trend, all thanks to our designers and stylists. The Handlooms that are in vogue are Kalamkari, Ikat, Jamdani. Our actors rocked these handloom designs in every way possible!
Regina Cassandra in Anusha Vuppala Ikat design styled by Indrakshi Pattanaik!
Shruti Hassan in Shilpa reddy for the promotions of Gabbar is back, an Ikat design again!
Manchu Lakshmi in Shilpa Reddy, Malkha design!
Samantha in Shilpa Reddy Ikat design at Tommorowland Belgium!
Raashi Khanna in Diksha Khanna’s design styled by Shivanshi Khanna & Nithishasriram!
Regina Cassandra in Debashri Samantha’s Jamdani weave design styled by Indrakshi Pattanaik!
Kajal Aggarwal in the merakai project’s Ikat number styled by Neeraja Kona!
Nayanthara in beautiful plain khadi saree for Siima awards styled by Neeraja Kona!
Sai Dharam Tej in Preetham Jukalker’s Ikat Number Styled by Neeraja Kona!
Aditi Rao Hyderi in Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla's celebrating 100 years of Khadi.
