Masters of Jamdani Weaving

With the advent of technological changes in weaving, such as the jacquard and the power loom, cheap imitations of the fine handloom techniques made a certain variety of Jamdani accessible for a wider population.

Yet there are pockets where the prized handloom Jamdani is still woven.

The master weaver explains the weaving process by referring to a book.

The Debnaths are highly influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and his belief in the simple hand spun yarn.

Thus inspired by him, they only use hand spun cotton in their craft.

Once the fine muslin yarn is spun on a charkha, it is then twisted to form longer and stronger threads.

Theirs is one of the only facilities that is able to produce hand spun yarn of counts as high as 500 singles.

These yarns require specific treatment in order to be loom-ready. The yarn is sized using a traditional variety of rice starch (kalma rice).

This process has to be protected from sunlight, and hence, is performed before sunrise.

The rice paste is applied uniformly throughout the spinning process .

To minimise breakage of the delicate yarn during weaving, fine bamboo reeds are used on the loom, rather than mass produced metal reeds.

The extra weft designs are so fine that they have to be inserted using a needle rather than a shuttle.

Their Jamdani has a look similar to that of the ‘shadow work’ of delicate Chikankari embroidery from Uttar Pradesh.

Their production of khadi muslin Jamdanis is exclusive, and in fact, only their R&D facility is open to visitors.

Their buyer list includes big names from the design world both in India and abroad, like Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Armani and Gucci.

Basak is able to visualise a narrative, and translate it into a fabric. The Jamdani design, woven laboriously by highly skilled artisans, is very intricate, and uncovers a narrative as the fabric is woven.

This piece tells the story of hand spun yarn – from the cotton plant to the weaver’s loom.

Detail depicting plucking of cotton balls from the plant.

These illustrations, woven into the fabric, on a hand loom, using such fine yarn, is a testament to the high level of skill that Basak and his Jamdani craftsmen posess.

Detail showing the charkha used for spinning.

Another part of the fabric, with a detail of a woman spinning cotton on the charkha.

The craftsman has managed to weave very clear lines and shapes in this illustration!

Detail showing woman winding yarn onto a bigger spool from a bobbin.

Detail showing unwinding of the cotton hank.

Detail depicting the weaving of a sari.

This panel shows the weaver buying yarn from the market and the pre-weaving process of starching the yarn.

This panel shows the pre-weaving process of warping.

This panel shows the complete pre-weaving and weaving processes.

The weaving process.

Details of the panel showing the weaving process.

Details of the panel showing the weaving process. Here, the weaver has managed to weave an illustration of a Jamdani sari inside a Jamdani fabric!

This panel shows the weaver packing the ready saris for the market.

Details of the weaver at the market.