Siripuram, Nalgonda district
Siripuram is a village and a gram panchayat of Ramannapet Mandal, Nalgonda District, in Telangana state. Siripuram is known for its textile industries, and ranked second position next to Pochampalli in weaving. Nearly 60% of the people are employed as weavers, or textile dyeing workers. Thread material made up of polyester and cotton are the raw products used in the weaving. the main agricultural resources were cotton and wheat. The ikat weaving is an old and traditional process and it's been in the roots of our lands ever since the first piece of skin was worn . We traveled to this place called Siripuram just to know the traditional weaving process on a long-known process called ikat. Ikat is termed as POETRY OF THE LOOM. It is highly recognized by its geometric patterns and blurry lines. The dying art is to be revived, so we travel to know the roots of the ikat weaving. Travel. By train. There are three trains from Hyderabad. Designing and process. Most of the fabrics woven are for the home décor section. Dress material and chunni are also woven. Few of the motifs and designs found in Siripuram Ikat are: Geethalu , Pan patola, Rajasthan, Mamidipinde, Malle rekha, Malle mogga, Kota komma, Jaggu, Indhradhanasu, Chakram, Kaya, Pedha kaya, Chinna kaya, Diamond, etc. They use bright colors and sometimes they use darker colors according to the market demand. The weavers use white weft to tone down the colors of the warp. The artisans do not have any idea about the market and have no connections through which they can do business themselves. The designs are given by the market to the Society and Sahukars who pass on the design to the artisans. Very few artisans get the privilege design their own fabrics. Process  Warping – Warping is done on the ‘addas’. This is known as drum warping. First the artisans used hanks of yarn but now they use cone. This is a very old technique. In 1 complete circle of the ‘adda’ 25 meters length of yarn is warped. If the yarn is warped on the ‘adda’ for 1 hour, there are 140 ‘koliki’, that is, 140 counts, that is, 280 threads. The yarns are then dried by the technique of street spreading. The village is planned in a linear way because of this process only. Weft preparation –The yarn is rotated on a  ‘charkha’ so that it gets transferred to the shuttle and then it goes for weaving. Usually the females of the family help the artisans to do this. Designing – The designs are made on the graph papers. One box on the graph denotes 6 yarns. Nowadays, for warp direction ikat, no graph paper is used because the artisans are so skilled that they can imagine the design and without any rough draft can start the tying and dyeing. Tying - Once the designing is over, the artisan moves to tying. The yarns are spread evenly and stretched in the room. Then, with  the help of a ruler they mark the parts on the yarns which are to be tied. With the help of rubber strips from cycle tires, they tie the yarns tightly so that those portions are resisted and the dye does not penetrate that area. For very fine designs, they tie cotton yarns very tightly around the area which has to be resisted. Dyeing – Once the bundle of yarns is tied, they are sent for dyeing. Most of the artisans, who tie the yarns also dye them. They use chemical dyes, like naphthol dye. They use caustic soda, TR and  the color to dye the yarn. First, it is dipped in a soap solution and then it is dipped in the dye. The yarns are tied and dyed multiple times depending on the design. Weaving – The dyed yarns are then sent to the weavers. The weavers dent the yarns in the loom and then start the weaving. They mostly use pit looms made of teak wood for weaving. They use plain weave, that is, 1 up and 1 down. They use temple to maintain the evenness of the width of the fabric.  They also use wax to smoothen the thread  movement. They are mostly applied to the selvedges of the fabric. Wax is mostly used for red and yellow dyed yarn because they are coarser than others.