22. Tie and Dye

Tie and dye, the traditional, colourful resist dyeing method is popularly called ‘Bandhni’ in India. It is most prevalent in the state of Rajasthan. Rajasthan is a desert state – drab and unicolour so to fill colour in their lives people wear these colourful clothes.  It is simple, beautiful and quite exciting too. You fold the material and tie it expecting a certain pattern but when you open the knots somehow what emerges never fails to amaze you – Much like what God felt when he made humans, I guess!

The art lies in tying the knots which will prevent certain portions of the cloth from getting dyed. The beginner is taught by putting a chickpea in between the cloth and tying a tight knot around it. The experts however just take a pinch of cloth and tie it.  The cloth will then be dyed in the lightest colour first and dried. Thereafter the patterns of the second colour will be tied and again the dying process will be followed and so on. It is a time consuming process but nothing good ever got done in a hurry. 

The Dyeing Process

• The dyes used are in the proportion of 10 gm colour to 1 m cloth

• Make the dye into a  paste dissolving all lumps.

• Add to boiling water

•  Add double the amount of salt

• Add a little bit of sodium carbonate (soda ash) even sodium hydroxide few pellets worked.

• Wet the material to be dyed.

• Boil material in the dye for 20 25 min. stir continuously.

•  Take out the material and wash in running water till the colour has stopped running.

• Soak for 1-2 hrs in a solution of vinegar and water (to fix the colour).

My sister Parmita opened her 'Pandora's Box' to dig out these patterns she had made - and there is plenty more where these came from!

Pattern made by a run stitch then pulling the thread and tying a knot

The cloth was just bundled up and bound with thread to produce this pattern

There are a number of factors which will affect the final outcome of your design, which one learns through experience, but the most important is the type of cloth. The thickness of the cloth and its texture will determine the amount of colour and the soaking time required.

Another thing one should keep in mind is the colour scheme because when colours overlap they form an altogether new colour, eg if you are trying to make a blue and yellow combination keep in mind that in places where the two overlap it will become green unless you are very careful.