Handloom weaving - aiaca

Another big center is Shahpur in Belgaum district, Karnataka state. While Maheshwaris
are normally in bright colors, Shahpuris specialize in soft pastels or shots of two colors:
one in the warp, another in the weft, with matching colors in the border and the pallu.
Poona has its distinctive sari with a gold thread speckled panel for the pallu and a
narrow gold patterned border.
From Hubli-Dharwar to Bijapur in Karnataka state, cotton saris are made in dark earthy
colors, which mark them out. There is a special sari in this area known as Irkal after the
village in Bijapur district, from which it seems to have originated. Large quantities of
yardage in the Irkali style are produced for blouses in a little village called Galedgudda
near Irkal, and supplied to markets all over. Irkali style saris in finer counts are also
made in Narayanpet in Andhra Pradesh. Irkalis are rich in their coloring with colors like
the special pomegranate red, brilliant peacock blue, parrot green. The rasta design has
horizontal lines in subtle matching colors running through the body of the sari with
charming effect.
Gadwal and Kothakota near Vanaparti in Andhra Pradesh weave fine cotton saris with
rich gold borders and heavy panel-like pallus. Cotton saris with richly woven pallus and
gold borders in opulent designs are made in places like Siddhipet and Armoor in Andhra
Pradesh, which used to make them in silk. Now they also manufacture curtains,
bedspreads, etc., using the old decorative motifs for ornamentation.
Amongst elaborate styles in cotton weaving is Jamdani.
Himroo is a kind of a brocaded material woven on a simple throw-shuttle loom on the
principle of the extra weft figuring with cotton used in the warp and art silk in the weft.
In this the preparation of the jala or design is most important for this is where initially
the entire design is actually worked out, and prescribes where the extra weft silk yarn is
to pass through some of the warp threads which is a most complicated and time
consuming job.
Mashru is also a similar material but lighter, woven in gentle parallel and diagonal lines
intersecting each other or stripes. It has a glow, is popular for vests, blouses and scarves.
Silk not only has a very ancient tradition, it enjoys also a significant status because of its
use at rituals. This may partly account for the concentrated development of silk weaving
at popular places of worship like Varanasi and Kanchipuram. Varanasi is however in a
class by itself not only for its superb weaving in gold and silver, but also for the very
wide variety of techniques and styles its weavers can adopt. They are incomparable in
their weaving talent and reproduce any antique museum piece with a distinction that
would make anyone mistake the copy for the original.