Country Stitches is a collection of exquisitely hand embroidered sarees by local artisans from the country sides of West Bengal (the eastern part of India). It comprises of traditional, understated, and refined stitches that make up the ageless language of complex patterns.
The art of decorating these sarees includes crewel work, needlepoint, cross-stitch embroidery, and quilting, and is mainly done by means of a needle and thread (and sometimes fine wire or Jori).
There are simply too many variants when the myriad of unique threads and textiles are added to the mix.
We have used the classic Kantha stitch on Khesh textile in our collection of country stitches, primarily Kagaz ke Phool and Raat Tara (and many others yet to be introduced) to create the master pieces.
Khesh ( Textile - Weaving technique )
We've all heard about recycling, upcycling, and making new clothes from old clothes. But is this a modern concept?
Born from recycled fabrics, Khesh has its own style, comfort and history. Khesh weaving originated in Birbhum district of West Bengal. Many of Birbhum's traditional weavers, who learned the craft from their father, agree that the technique of weaving using scraps of old sarees began in the early 1920s in Shilpa Sadan, Shantiniketan.
The weavers collect cotton sarees and then it is the women who patiently tear the sari into multiple long strips. It is up to the weaver to match the warp with the weft and create designs. The beauty of a Khesh fabric is that the colour of the recycled weft fabric keeps changing, sometimes even within a single meter of fabric and that precisely is the uniqueness of this fabric. These handloom cotton fabrics are hand woven and the asymmetry/ irregularities in the weaves makes them exclusive.
Kantha Stitch (Run-Stitch)
"Kantha" refers to both the style of running stitch, as well as the finished cloth.
Traditionally, old cotton saris, lungis and dhotis, which had turned incredibly soft through wear, were used to make kanthas, with the thread for the stitching drawn out from the fabric itself. Recycling at its best!
Around five to seven fabrics would be layered together, with lighter coloured fabrics on the outside so the stitch and pattern was discernible. The stitch would cover the entire cloth to provide strength.Women in almost every household in rural villages would be kantha experts, and spend whatever quiet time they had available - between looking after the house and children, tending to livestock and during the long days of the monsoon - on stitching the pieces. It could take months or even years to complete one kantha. The stitching could be handed down through generations, with grandmother, mother and daughter working on the same kantha.
Kantha, one of the oldest forms of embroidery from India and a craft practiced today by millions of South Asian women, originated from the most humble of beginnings. Born in the rural villages of Bengal, this art form all but disappeared in the early 19th century before being revived in the 1940s by the daughter in law of the famed Bengali poet and Nobel laureate, Rabindranath Tagore.
Now that's how much we know about it. Interesting , eh?
We have curated few masterpieces for you, on comfortable Khesh saree that features beautiful, precise and intricate kantha work .
Now it's your turn to embrace art and tradition, drape this piece of pure elegance, and flaunt this work of exquisite beauty.
