Uttar Pradesh GI Handloom Products

Agra Durrie

Agra Durrie is a traditional hand woven textile product. It is a flat woven pileless rug having a rich variety of designs and colors. It is essentially a thick cotton woven fabric meant for spreading on the floor. It is a weft-faced fabric on both its sides as warp is completely covered by the weft. In its simplest form it is made in plain weave and in simple stripes in different colorscolours running from side to side or broken into rectilinear sections or with simple patterns in single colorcolour or multi colorscolours. Agra Durrie is a flat woven pileless rug having a rich variety of designs and colors in simple stripes in different colors running from side to side or broken into rectilinear sections or with simple patterns in single colorcolour or multi colorscolours. The origin of the Agra Durrie traced back in epics ‘Mahabharat’. It was believed that the people of Agra adorned floor covering in order to welcome lord Krishna at ‘Shauripur’ near Agra during the ancient period.



Banaras Brocades And Sarees

Banaras is one of the rich weaving craft centres of India, famous for Brocade Saris and dress material. One unique and intricate silk brocades and sarees of Banaras has made it world famous. Among the different varieties of sarees produced in the centres, some exclusive varieties of the sarees are Jangla, Tanchoi, Vaskat, Cutwork, Tissue and Butidar which are made of silk warp and silk weft, on plain/satin ground base, brocaded with extra weft patterns in different layouts introducing Buties, Bells, Creepers, Buttas in ground, border and anchal for getting glamourous appearance. With the change in time and consumer preference, the weavers of the cluster are also undertaking changes in the design and pattern of the product along with product diversification. In order to cater to the need of the oversees and domestic buyers, the weavers of the cluster are also producing home furnishing, silk dhotis, stole, scarf, muffler, mats, dress material, wall hanging, made ups like curtain, cushion cover, table cover, napkins, runners, etc. some of the items produced in the Banaras are presented below:



Mirzapur Handmade Dari

Weaving has been traditionally linked with the lives of people and their environment. It is an age old practice and hand weaving is probably the oldest and certainly one of the most universally practiced crafts. The Dari / Durries at Mirzapur can be classified in to two types Panja Dari and Loom Dari. No warp thread shall be visible either on the upper or on the lower surface. Mirzapur Handmade Dari is a mix of traditional and contemporary designs and speaks of high workmanship. In Mirzapur Handmade Dari the whole process is entirely manual starting from weaving, designing, finishing etc. Mirzapur Handmade Dari is traditional bound rural based, labour intensive, export oriented and provide self-employment for both men & women, generally at home. Mirzapur Handmade Dari is predominately done using Panja Dari weaving technique. These Handmade Dari are well-crafted and quite elegant they do possess some key characteristics of the traditional Panja Durries. They depict bold and creation juxtaposition of color; the individual creativity in creating striking combination of motif and color. Peacocks and lions, half - kites shapes, bold ware patterns and multi —hued diamond —shaped bands, geometric shape and designs.



Mau Saree

Basically, Mau is the city of weavers. The occupation of weaving is very old and conventional. The weavers used to produce sarees and other fabrics like Joda, Lungi etc. In the earlier time, cotton sarees, cotton joda (markeen) etc. were the main products. The tradition of weaving has been practiced in the Mau for last 200 years and is a source of livelihood for weaver's family. It also closely affiliated to the Socio- Cultural ethos of the weavers' family. In the early stages, Saree produced in Mau comprised of handspun cotton yarn and were, woven on throw shuttle pit loom. The Mau saree are especially renowned for the novelty of the designs used, the procedure of hand-spinning using extra weft and the different colour patterns used and last thin finesse of the fabric. Fine sarees of Mau is much sought-after all over the country; the process to weave such an exquisite wonder begins from a very basic level of spinning the yam. The high quality of the product owes its origin to the extreme care that artisans seek to adopt from the very beginning to the end of the production process. The Mau saree is produced by the weavers by a combination of Silk, Cotton and Art Silk yarn through handlooms. In the British regime the people started weaving of Saree and Lungi with the help of looms. As the time passed wide border saree production started at Mau. Keeping the demand pattern in mind the Jacquard used loom are also used. Presently, Sarees of Mau are made by using Pure Silk & Art Silk as warp and Pure silk, and cotton yam are used as weft. A range of products are produced by the weavers in this production centre. The products manufactured in this production centre are Sarees, popularly known as "Mau Saree". In addition to this, Ladies Dress Material (LDM), Bed cover, Dhoti, Lungi, etc. are also produced in Mau through handlooms.



Source: Wikipedia