Art & Craft Forms we work on
Our Hand painted Sarees have beautiful mythological stories that are painted in Folk Art forms and by artists belonging to their native lands and our products are hence GI tagged products.
Patachitra
A rare form of painting originating from Odisha, where the artist paints on handmade silk or cotton canvas. The Patachitras of Odisha are icon paintings that include wall paintings,manuscript paintings,palm-leaf etching and painting on cloth both cotton and silk. This art of painting on cloth can be traced back to the establishment of the shrine of Lord Jagannath at Puri in Orissa and has been passed down from generation to generation. Most stories of Patachitra paintings hence revolve around Lord Krishna and his leela.
Pichwai
This Indian folk art has its origins in Rajasthan, India. Pichwai (pichvai) is a style of painting that originated over 400 years ago, in the town of Nathdwara near Udaipur in Rajasthan, India. The word Pichwai comes from 'pichh' meaning back, and 'wai', meaning textile hanging. They are made by members of the Pushti Marg sect, founded by Shri Vallabhacharya in the 16th Century.
It consists of a series of paintings on cloth using natural colors and vegetable dyes. These Pichwai paintings are done with a natural brush made from animal hair or cotton threads.Pichwai paintings were mainly made to hang in Hindu temples, epecially the Shrinathji temple in Nathdwara, Rajasthan, built around 1672.
Intricate and visually stunning, pichwai paintings, made on cloth, depict tales from Lord Krishna's life. Creating a pichwai can take several months, and requires immense skill, as the smallest details need to be painted with precision. Lord Krishna is often depicted as Shrinathji in Pichwais, which is the deity manifest as a seven-year-old child. Other common subjects found in pichwai paintings are Radha, gopis, cows and lotuses. Festivals and celebrations such as Sharad Purnima, Raas Leela,Govardhan Puja, Janmashtami,Diwali and Holi are frequently depicted in Pichwais.
Ragmala
The Ragmala series of paintings is a part of the Rajasthani miniature art form that is an offshoot of the Mughal art that Persian artists brought into India during Humanyun’s time around the year 1555. In the 17th century the Bundi school of art, developed the Ragmala series.
A ragamala (garland of ragas) is a genre of painting that is termed as "pictorial music". It represents ragas that correspond to emotional states associated with specific times of day or seasons of the year. Musical modes may be male ragas or female raginis, and each is expressed in terms of human love. There are six main ragas; Bhairava, Malkaus, Deepak, Hindol, Shri and Megha.
This painting of the Malasri ragini depicts Malasri waiting for her beloved in a garden and is intended to evoke the emotional state one experiences during an intense longing for union with the beloved- a metaphor for union with god.The Malasri ragini is a musical mode suitable for all hours. This is the subject of most of our saree stories.
Madhubani
The origins of Madhubani paintings are quite unknown. However, it is believed that King Janak, ruler of Mithila Kingdom in the 8th or 7th century BC, had asked to develop these paintings in order to capture the moments of his daughter Sita's wedding to Prince Rama. Madhubani painting (Mithila painting) originated from Madhubani district of the Mithila region of Bihar. Artists create these paintings using a variety of mediums, including their own fingers, or twigs, brushes, nib-pens, and matchsticks.
Madhubani paintings mostly depict people and their association with nature and natural objects like the sun, the moon, and religious plants like tulsi along with scenes from the royal court and weddings. In these paintings, no space is left empty; the gaps are filled by paintings of flowers, animals, birds, and even geometric designs. Here’s a beautiful colourful painting on the harmony that exists in nature between animals, birds and plants.
Gond
The Gond tribe has its origin in Madhya Pradesh and derives its name from the word 'Kond' meaning 'green mountain'. Although Gond art is primarily from MP, it is also practiced in Andhra, Odisha, Chattisgarh and Maharastra. It dates back to 1400 years ago to the Mesolithic period. The Gond believe that every element of nature, be it hills, the sky or trees is inhabited by spirit and thus need to be revered. These paintings are examples of their close connection to nature.
The art form has dots and dashes to enhance details. Also, the form mostly has geometric shapes like fish scales, seed shapes, water drops etc. and the sense of movement is established through curves and strokes of lines.
Note: All the paintings depicted here have been made by our artists