Silk hank is soaked in hot water so the extra starch is washed out and then it is bleached (white). The silk treads are filled in reel with the help of ‘Retio’- The spinning wheel. Then it is warped and weft. After the segregation, the wrap hreads are dyed as per the requirement and the weft part is tied as perthe design to be executed. Later the weft is colored/dyed in congruence to the requirement. This process of dyeing warp and weft is that labour intensive that almost every member contributes to carry out this task to accomplishment.
Silk hank is open up to a wooden ‘piraati’- that is a warping tool. Single thread is extracted from the hank. This thread is consecutive till the end. Weaver holds the reel in his one hand and fills it through the
‘Retio’. It takes nearly 1 5 to 20 minutes to fill a reel. Approximately, 70-80 reels are required in a yarn.
Before weaving, yarns are stretched on a wood frame. 26 to 28 reels are required to make weft of a saree. The width of wooden frame ‘aadoo’ is according to the width of saree.
According to the calculation and the width of saree 28 reels are stretched on wooden frame. The group of 28 threads is known as one ‘Iat’ and there are 61 ‘Iat’ in a weft.
For Slngle Ikat patola sarees chemical colours are use for dyeing process. The napthol colour used in single ikat are red, brown. green. yellow, violet and pink.
Organic colours are used to dye double itak patola sarees, which are made from herbs, barks of trees, leaves. skin of fruit and flowers. These herbal and organic colours are advantageous for skin. It requires 3 to 5 months to make organic colors.
The design of patola is foremost prepared on graph paper according to the mathematical calculations. Likewise according to the design and mathematical calculation the required threads are counted to execute the design.
Patola design is normally based on geometrical motifs. Patola design mostly includes ‘Narikunjar Bhaat’ in which design of elephant, parrot, trees and females are included. In the same way traditional design like Paan bhaat,Chaabdi, Manek chowk. Voragaj, Navratna. Mor-jaad (Pecock-tree), are seen on patolas.
The weft silk threads. on the frame are then tied separately with cotton threads on the portions already marked out in conformity with the proposed design on the fabric. with the help of graph paper. Thus process of tying the thread is known as ‘Bandhej’.
When in bandhej the knots are tied the rest parts are dyed, the tied portion remains white that is colour of silk. Fabrics are always dyed with yellow colour first. Untied portion will absorbed a colour and will be tied while dyeing other portion with other colour. Tying. dyeing, untylng and retying processes are carried out.
After the completion of dyeing process the tied knots are unfolded. The warp consists of 28 thread of silk, which are now discrete to individual. The threads of wefts are warped on to bobbins through ‘retio’.
One by one, 3600 silk thread are taken out of the beam is set through heddles. it is known as ‘Saran‘ or ‘Santhali’. These segregated threads are then set on looms and the patola’s silk threads are ready for weaving.