Brocade Silk

Brocade weaving, especially with gold and silver, has been an age-old tradition in India. Brocades can be divided into two broad classes. One is brocade of pure silk or silk and cotton blends and zari brocades with gold and silver threads.

Silk is considered as the most important material in brocade weaving. Silk is fine, smooth, durable and the strongest natural fabric, which facilitates lovely weaves. There are many different varieties of raw silk and only the superior varieties are used for brocade weaving.

The variety of raw silk used for brocade work are:

• Tanduri: This variety is obtained from Malda and other places of West Bengal.
  
  
• Banaka: This is a thinner and finer variety of raw silk. The fabric is usually used for weaving soft fabrics like turbans and handkerchiefs.
  
  
• Mukta: It is comparatively a coarse and durable silk and is used for making kimkhabs as fine silk is not able to withstand heavy gold patterns.

Silk brocade is generally used for making following items:

• Silk Hooded Duster
• Silk Shawls
• Silk Stoles