The Bandhej Bond

My love affair with Bandhej or tie-and-dye started when I was in standard 10. My sister had gone to the prestigious BITS, Pilani, and on her first visit home, brought back a bandhej salwar material for me.

She painstakingly explained to me that the cloth, roughly the size of a big handkerchief, would expand once you start removing the threads. And that was what I did for the next couple of hours. Opening up the knots, counting them and stretching the material. It was just too much fun to see beautiful designs unfolding as I went.

It was the first time I was coming across hand made designs. I was awestruck by the thought that somebody had taken a grain of rice, bundled it with that tiny bit of cloth, tied a knot, repeated that process a few hundred times and then coloured the cloth! It was just so special to wear something that had so much thought and effort put into it!

For the newbies, this is what a whole saree looks like when it has been tied and dyed

Are you a connoisseur of hand worked textile too? Whats your favorite?