BEDDING — Inside the Home

Blanket Bedspread

India, Its not What You Think

I made a trip to India last year. The golden triangle of Delhi, Jaipur and Agra to be exact. One generally thinks of east meets west when you think about India. I literally thought I was going to die during the cab ride from the airport to our hotel room.... at least a dozen times. And mind you, I'm not a mild mannered suburban dwelling Westerner who waits for old ladies to use the crosswalk while patiently waiting for the pedestrian light to turn red. I'm from Malaysia and I've been to Thailand, Indonesia, Brazil, the Philippines but I've NEVER seen anything like this in my life! We must've heard 1000 honks during our one hour cab ride.

 

Back at the hotel we decided to go out for some drinks and explore around the area for a bit. We walked the corner down a dark alleyway and saw an entire row of Indian people lying down on old pieces of cardboard. They were almost stacked on top of one another and looked like they hadn't had food or a shower in days.

 

On the second day we went to some handicraft bazaars. Understandably I was hoping to see some bazaars filled with touristy sourvenirs. What we saw was a peek into the scale of manual labour in India.

 

Carpets are meticulously woven by hand. Each knot is tied with an intricate pattern and then sliced off with a sickle. And the next knot is tied one millimetre next to it. Repeat 100,000 times, changing the colours as dictated by the master grid and you have a wonderful hand woven carpet. This is how carpets are made every day in India.

 

Hand block print textiles are produced using block stamps carved with a pattern and using ink to stamp into the cotton textile. This master block is dipped in dye and stamped over and over again to create thousands of metres of hand block print textiles. Hand block print textiles can be used to make clothing, home furnishings and bedding.

 

As you can imagine, the level of skill and patience that is needed to produce handcrafted decorations is not acquired overnight. As a matter of fact, it takes an entire generation to produce the next generation of artisans to carry the torch into the future. Meanwhile, modern manufacturing processes with their economies of scale combined with areas which are closer to market have threatened the livelihoods of local Indian artisans. On top of that, lack of innovative and new designs have caused traditional hand block print to lose ground in the modern textile market.

 

Sensing the value of preserving the old and integrating it with the new, a small group of visionary entrepreneurs has undertaken the task to modernize the traditional hand block printing industry. Their products come from India where they modernise old patterns in bright vivid colours. They are targeting new audiences with innovative and exciting online channels that educate and inform a new generation of consumers about an ancient traditional art. More importantly, they are giving back to organizations that have been set up to aid traditional communities via education. This virtuous circle is reason enough to support companies like Darjeeling Cotton, that have a beautiful assortment of blankets, bedspreads and quilts for sale.

About the Author

Nickolas is an avid online marketer who writes for local companies to support promote their services on-line. Here he writes for Darjeeling Cotton who sell assortments of blankets, bedspreads and quilts thorugh thier site at http://www.darjeelingcotton.com.

<a href="http://www.darjeelingcotton.com/">bedspreads</a>

Corduroy bedspread?

I spilled some juice on my corduroy bedspread and the instructions say to take it to the dry cleaners. Currently, my blanket has a huge spot on it and it seems as if the juice ruined the corduroy. If I take it to the dry cleaners, will it come back like it did before I spilled juice on it?

-If it says dry clean only, then do that...just tell the dry cleaner what was spilled on it. However, there are many items that can be washed gently. If it were me, I would pretreat the stain, wash it in cold water, hand wash cycle with Tide, and perm. press dry

Hillary's new blankie

Tags: bedding, bedspread, blanket, ikea, pattern

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 7th, 2008 at 5:03 pm and is filed under bedding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.