Where is Orissa - textile tours destination?
Orissa is an Indian state located on the eastern coast and is a brilliant destination for textile tours. Its landscape is mostly vast mountain ranges with broad rivers flowing between the valleys. The beautiful coastal plain lies on the east of the state hosting the largest coastal lagoon in India and the second largest coastal lagoon in the world. Orissa is also one of the locations Colouricious Holidays offer as a textile tours hotspot. It"s rich in gorgeous fabrics made by hand.
People of Orissa
In spite of being rural, people of Orissa, have still retained India"s earliest civilization in its pristine form by keeping their traditional values alive in the countless thousands of villages in the country side. Of all the states of India, Orissa has the largest number of tribes, as many as 62 that constitute an impressive 24 percent of the total population of the state. These tribes mainly inhabit the Eastern Ghats hill range that runs in the north-south direction.
Subsistence oriented economy of the tribes here is based on food gathering, hunting and fishing, thus, revolving around forests. While farming, they make use of a very simple technology and a simple division of labor often limited to the immediate family. But they lose out because their holdings are small and unproductive, lacking irrigation facility due to a hilly and undulating terrain.
Many tribes practice shifting cultivation or Podu Chasa, also known as slash and burn. They select a plot of land on a mountain slope, slash down all the trees and bushes and burn them to ashes. Spreading the ashes evenly over the land, they wait for the rains before planting their crops. Due to cultivation for two or three seasons on one plot of land the soil gets depleted and the tribes move on. It is a way of life for them.Textiles tours of Orissa
The beautiful variety of unusual fabrics and vibrant textile colours all
over India make this a number 1 destination to visit on textile tours for textile lovers. Orissa is home to and famous for its silk ikat weaves. This unique technique is known as tie and dye (Bandha) and is a very intricate process. It takes extraordinary precision with the predetermined design and colour gradually appearing as dyed threads are woven together. Click here (http://gaatha.com/cotton-weaves-of-orissa/) to delve deeper and learn more about the wonderful cotton weaves of Orissa.
Thousands of weavers are inhabited in remote villages living with age old traditions, creating superb workmanship on silk, cotton, tusser fabrics.
On a colouricious holiday to Orissa textile tours, you can expect to experience saree weaving, basket weaving, Dokhra metal art, pottery, stone carving and palm leaf painting, just some of the crafts to get involved with at these remote villages.
Orissa Cuisine
With a simple yet delicious cuisine, Orissa follows a food pattern that is somewhat similar to the neighboring states. Rice, the staple food is paired with vegetables.Due to their deeply religious culture, most of Oriya people practice
vegetarianism. But a significant proportion of population yet relishes fish and other sea food delicacies like prawns, crabs and lobsters that are found in plenty at the vast coastline of the state. Cooked with little or absolutely no oil, Oriya food has a less calorific value.Along with curd and coconut milk, people are very fond of sweets as well. The curd here is rich and creamy and gives the succulent flesh an additional flavor. Not only the seafood but yams, brinjals and pumpkins are also liberally used in curd with mustard seeds giving the whole preparation that extra zing. Pithas are also very popular food items here. These are small cakes both sweet and savory in taste. Chhenapodapitha, the caramelized custard-like dessert is also very popular not only with the locals but with the tourists also.
Want to join us on a holiday?
Colouricious Holidays have lots of different holidays exploring India, Japan, Bhutan and Uzbekistan. We will be expanding this all the time with moredestinations and places to go. If you would like to join us on one of our wonderful cultural, arts and crafts holidays visit our website where you will be able to read all about the holidays we offer and you can reserve your place.
We look forward to seeing you on a Colouricious Holiday!
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Bagru is a small village located near Jaipur, the capital City of Rajasthan. It"s home to the Chippa community who have been practicing a unique style of printing for more than 350 years. Colouricious holidays visited Bagru, running Bagru block printing workshops, working with traditional printers and helping support this ancient craft which faces threat from globalisation.
Scouring- locally called ‘Hari Sarana’
Dyeing is a process in which the dye reacts with two mordants at two different locations on the same print giving two different shades of colors. As mentioned earlier ‘alizarin’ is used as the dye throughout Rajasthan. The colours obtained in conjunction with the two mordants are red (with alum) and block (with ferrous). Dyeing is carried out in large copper vessels (‘tambri’) which are heated by wood fire. Alizarin is filled in small cloth-bags (‘potali’) and dipped in the vessel. The quantity of alizarin dye is calculated by the experienced dyer. ‘Dhawadi phool’, a local flower is boiled along with alizarin to avoid patches and staining. Once the dyed fabric is ready (usually it takes half-an-hour), it is taken out of the copper vessel and left on the ground for drying.
Creating your own fabric designs or making your own paper for craft projects needn"t be difficult. Colouricious love to experiment with metallic paints. Using wooden printing blocks, metallic print fabric can transform textiles into these beautiful collage designs below. Due to the reflective nature of the paint, it blends well with any dyed fabric generating this magical, vibrant appearance and is the best way to embellish your textiles.
If wooden block printing isn"t your cup of tea then don"t be afraid to get creative. Metallic paint can be used in many wonderful ways. This paint works best on natural fibres than synthetic as the paint is made from a mixture of a pigment and a glue-like binder and therefore sticks to rougher surfaces easier. The sparkle that these wonderful paints create will enhance any of your creations. Unlike fabric dye, it only requires ironing to fix the paint.
