Our Craft

In Jetpur, cloth is always moving — through dye, water and sunlight. These are the crafts we practise in our workshop.

Bandhani — the art of the knot

The name comes from bandh, "to tie". The design is first marked on the cloth, and then every point of the pattern is pinched up and tied tightly with thread. When the cloth is dyed, the tied points resist the colour. Once it has dried and the knots are opened, each one blooms into a small ring or dot.

Richer designs are tied and dyed in stages — lighter colours first, deeper colours after — so that a single saree can carry several layers of pattern. It is slow, exacting work, and no two pieces are ever quite the same.

Batik — drawing with wax

In batik, the pattern is drawn onto the cloth with hot wax. Wherever the wax sits, the dye cannot reach. The cloth is dyed, the wax is removed, and the design appears in the colour the fabric held before.

Repeating the process — waxing, dyeing, removing — builds up more colours. Hairline cracks in the wax let a little dye seep through, leaving the fine veining that is the signature of true batik.

Patola — pattern before weaving

Patola is Gujarat's celebrated ikat. Instead of printing or dyeing the finished cloth, the pattern is dyed into the threads themselves: bundles of yarn are tied and dyed section by section, and the pattern only appears as the threads meet on the loom. In the famous double-ikat Patola of Patan, both the warp and the weft are dyed this way — which is why the pattern reads the same on both sides.

Precision is everything. A small misalignment on the loom shows at once, which is why a Patola saree is treasured for a lifetime.

Printed and dyed sarees

Alongside our heritage crafts, we dye and print sarees for everyday wear — easy to drape, easy to care for, and finished with the same attention as our festive pieces.

Drying in the sun

Every piece ends the same way: rinsed, dried in natural light, checked, and folded by hand before it leaves our workshop.

Read more about each craft in our journal, or explore the collections.