Threaded with pride

Award-winning weavers woo Hyd

The national award-winning weavers from Bihar and Varanasi took centre stage, with the Banaras Silk stands standing tall amongst the lot, at the ‘Silk Fab Expo’ at Kamma Sangam in Ameerpet.

Bihar produces Silk sarees in Kantha, Madhubani painting, Tussar silk and evy material. “We concentrate on plain sarees with simple borders. We stand unique because of the softness in the sarees we weave,” said Mohammed Ali, the award-winning weaver from Bhagalpur district in Bihar.

Speaking on their collection, Anwar from Banaras said, “Our State produces sarees in Tanchoi, Jamdani, Jamewswar, Crape silk and Pathnie Silk materials. When coming to design we weave sarees with skirt border, partly pallu and desiger prints.”

The cost of these sarees ranges from Rs 1,800 to 6,500. Their collection also had dress materials of Khadhi silk and hand printing.
Starting from Rs 10,000, Munga silk is a costly material from Varanasi. The design of these sarees is traditional.

Weaver from Varanasi, Zaffer said, “We concentrate more on the design, which is usually hand printed. We weave differently for different materials.” “The pattern of our designs says everything; we stand unique by this” he said proudly.

The exhibition also had the collection from Telangana government agencies and apex bodies. Sales executive from State Handloom Weavers Corporation, Balachander said, “We produce Dharmavaram, Pochampally, Mangalagiri, Venkatagiri and Uppada silk. The designs are mostly traditional and printed.”

The exhibition also had collections from Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh amongst others. The exhibition will continue till January 16 from 11 am to 8 pm.