Sarees of India 2- Kantha Sarees- Pride of West Bengal

This is my second post in series Sarees of India. The first  post is about a Banaras saree.

In this post sharing about Kantha Sarees of West Bengal.

 West Bengal is famous for many kinds of handloom sarees. I can say Kantha saree is pride of West Bengal.

Kantha is kind of embroidery, which was used by Bengali women to make old clothes look attractive.(I will write about Kantha embroidery in the series "Embroideries of India".)

Kantha Sarees are normally available in silk , silk cotton or cotton materials. On plain saree very intricate embroidery is  made with bright color threads. When I visited a craft fest I could capture photos some beautiful Kantha sarees.

Here are some Kantha sarees :

The colorful sarees , with very elegant Kantha embroidery , aren't these tempting ?

This I  liked the most , Black and Orange combination, with leaves patterns embroidered on it.

Yello, Blue , Creme and Pink, which one you liked the most?

 

Last time when I visited Kolkata , I could add some Kantha sarees to my wardrobe. One is green:

I was mesmerized by the motif and the patch work combination .

 

The closer view of the motif: 

Another is creme color , with very beautiful vine embroidery.

 

If you are saree lover , then I feel at least one Kantha saree is must in your wardrobe. What do you opine?

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Make over of an ordinary saree- Screen printing again

One of my clients had given a very ordinary saree for make over. Here it is :

 I tried to convince her a lot , not to go for make over of this saree, because that would be expensive and it might not look good also. But as it was last gift from her parents, she wanted to wear this saree. So she insisted for make over. 

It was really difficult for me. This is very normal saree, heavy lace won't look good for this. I went for normal zari lace. Attached it along the borders.Always I use screen printing for make over. Printed with big rose prints, as it is matching with lace.

 

 

And printed small motifs along on Pallu. Still I was not happy with the look, tried 3d glitter paint on the motifs and attached some kundans.

 

Closer view of the motif:

 

She is happy to with the work, at least she can wear this occasionally  . 

Soon working on writing on a series of sarees of India. In next post share about Kantha saree of West Bengal . 

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Coffee to drink or paint ?- Coffee painting

Confused reading title ? :) Yes !Coffee can be used for painting. Even I didn't know about this. Recently while browsing for some designs for glass painting  I had come across coffee painting. I was mesmerized by coffee paintings made by many artists. Even I thought to try my hands in coffee painting. The result is here :

This is painted with only coffee powder and water. Very simple too. The specialty of this painting is this has l  only shades of Brown! To highlight , I have used Gold color  3D outliner.  

Its really fun to paint with coffee, with nice aroma of coffee, and of course with a cup of coffee!So next time while having a cup of coffee , think of painting with coffee :-)

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana