Get your fix of Ilkal, Solapur and Gadwal sarees at an exhibition and learn cool ways to drape them
Solapur saree
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Corporate lawyer-turned-textile designer Vinay Narkar has been working with weavers to revive traditional weaves for over a decade. His current exhibition showcases his various attempts and experiments with reviving the traditional sarees of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
Ilkal and Solapur
Ilkal Sarees are popular in North Karnataka and Maharashtra. It perhaps is among the few textile traditions in India that have not been influenced by Mughal aesthetics. “Each variation in the Ilkal saree carries a different name based on the borders, checks and designs used. However, the hand-woven Ilkal saree is nearly extinct now,” shares Narkar. “Typically, the Ilkal has a silk pallu attached to it. The Solapur ones are cotton. The checks don’t go into the border. The two sarees have a similar aesthetic but the looms and weaving techniques differ,” he shares.
The three-shuttle technique
Narkar has also been working with the weavers of Gadwal, a small town in Andhra Pradesh. “Gadwal weavers are specialised in a weaving technique called ‘Kuttu’. This weaving technique using three shuttles (a pointed cloth-making tool used to pull a thread backwards and forwards) is practised by weavers as it creates 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,” says Narkar adding that there are hardly any weavers remaining to propagate the dying art. Narkar has given a complex technique a graphic makeover.
Pure Silk Ilkal
Wear the weave
Apart from a walkthrough that Narkar will conduct today, as part of Artisans’ Art Nights, interested folk will be introduced to different ways to drape the six yards at sessions conducted by designer Sourav Das.
The sessions will explore regional saree drapes.
On January 12 to 14
At Artisan', 52-56, Kala Ghoda.
Call 9820145397
Cost Rs 800 per person (for the draping workshop)
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