Be it the luminous silk embroideries or the feather light chanderi cotton, the creativity of every skilled craftsman is imbued in every handcrafted saree. It is evident from the history of handloom that finely-crafted handloom pieces always win the creative battle over the machine-made ones.
The time, skill and effort that goes in weaving a 12-yard-long saree is priceless and one cannot belief the amount of hard work of the craftsman until witnessed. From vibrant Jamdanis to regal Banarasis and elegant Tant sarees to luxurious Muslin drapes, each hand weaved saree has its own story of creation and hard work.
How to identify a real Handloom saree from the fake?
If you are getting a handloom saree for a little money, chances are it’s a fake! Handloom sarees in both silk and cotton are expensive to weave. A real handloom saree can be identified by its woven flow and also from its texture and weight.
For example a real Banarasi silk can be checked by the floats between the grids of wraps and wefts across the saree. Handloom silk sarees can be best understood by its texture, shimmer and weight. The best way to check a handloom silk saree is by rubbing the saree with your hands. An original silk saree generates warmth when rubbed.
In case of Chanderi silk, if the saree reflects a sound like walking over dry leaves while rubbing, then it is genuine. Real embroidery on any handloom silk sarees can be judged by its pattern and stitches. Real handloom embroidery reflects the shadow and criss-cross stitches. Though many machine made embroideries look similar to hand made, they leave uneven stitching and loose ends.
For the real handloom sarees, the pallu is the answer. If the saree is hand woven, then the back side of the pallu is usually the mirror image of the design in the front. In a machine-made saree, there will be lot of threads hanging lose and the back side will not be a replica of the front. Also the intricacy and sharpness of the design, in case of machine made sarees, will certainly let you down.
Stitches and Patterns are ideal identifications in real handloom
Authentic handlooms are often decorated with intricate traditional patterns. Whereas the machine-made weaves do not usually use these traditional patterns or carry the level of detailing that handlooms do. Further, natural dyes used in handloom sarees are pleasing to eyes, whereas machine made dye arts can appear harsh and garish.
Handloom sarees are often inspired by Mughal designs, and feature handmade patterns like amru, ambi and domak. Sarees made in machines cannot match this artisan level of detailing and they usually miss these traditional Persian motifs. A real handloom saree takes more or less than couple of weeks to complete and is therefore considered as the most priceless effort by the weavers. Which is why, a real handloom saree is expected to be expensive.
Efforts behind making a handloom saree
When it comes to pure handloom sarees, designs get tremendously intricate. Artisans work arduously to weave minute details in their tapestries, a feat that machine can never imitate. Now that you know about the hard work and amount of effort dedicated by the artisans in creating a single piece of handloom saree, you can understand the reason of its price.
At Keya Seth Exclusive, we bring you pure artisan collection of handloom sarees from Dhakai to Banarasi and Muslin to Tant. Every hand crafted sarees in Keya Seth Exclusive is genuine in terms of texture, colour, weight and weaves.
