Jamdani

Jamdani is an ancient fine MUSLIN cloth with geometric or floral designs. The origin of the word jamdani is uncertain. One popular belief is that it came from the Persian word Jamdani, which means, a vase of flowers. Jamdani the great characteristic of fine art in hand weaving. There  were handlooms in almost all villages of the Dhaka district.

Manufacturing Materials

1. Raw material: Karpash cotton or silk thread

2. Machinery/Tool:

a. Hand Loom

b. Scissors

c. Charka (Spinning m/c)

d. Taku (Spindle)

e. Maku (Shuttle)

f. Spools (Used for design)

 

Manufacturing Process

1.  To produce pure cotton Jamdanis, weavers use cotton/silk blends or other varieties of fiber.
2. Yarns were dyed using herbal dyes.
3. Jamdani is hand-woven on a loom made of bamboo, where the weaver sits in a trench or pit that is dug into the ground. 
4. One specialty of Jamdani loom is that it does not make any sound while weaving.
5. The creation of the warp and the setting up and dressing of the loom are similar to other hand-loom weaving techniques.
6. In weaving using a throw shuttle known as the maku the base fabric is woven in a plain weave structure.
7. Traditionally an open weave that appear thin and has an element of transparency.
8. Motifs: two weavers sit side by side at the loom and add every discontinuous supplementary weft motif separately by hand interlacing the supplementary weft threads into the warp with fine bamboo sticks in a zigzag manner using individual spools of thread. No warp-lifting mechanism is used.
9. The cotton threads used for opaque motifs are sometimes replaced by zari(golden) threads.
10. The supplementary weft threads used are traditionally thicker and heavier than threads used to weave the base fabric.
11. Those woven with a silk base often use cotton threads to create the brocade design.
12. The designs are never sketched or outlined but are made while the fabric is still on the loom inserted by hand during the process of weaving producing an embroidery-like effect Motifs important characteristics of Jamdani include the motifs mostly floral are of geometric shape normally spreading across the fabric in a diagonal format. The spread of motifs diagonally across the fabric is called Tercha. 

13. A starch mixture is applied to the fabric after each meter is woven but while it is still on the loom.

 

Structure Of Jamdani 

Mainly Jamdani is a plain woven fabric. Every woven fabric has a warp the longitudinal threads of the fabric and a weft the threads that go horizontally across. Jamdani has supplementary (or extra) weft that is introduced wherever the design is to be placed and woven into that selected place only. It serves as just decoration and is not a part of the textile's structure in the way that the regular warp and weft are.

 

Properties Of Jamdani Cloth

1. Very fine

2. Smooth and Soft 

3. Comfortable 

4. Medium to lightweight

5. Transparent