Beadwork, the craft of attaching beads
to each other is the forte of communities
like the Kathis who live in villages near
Sayla.
These are important centres for single-ikat
weaving. Entire families work together
on the resist dyeing process of the warp
or weft fibres, which are then drawn on
hand-operated looms for weaving. The fabrics
are less expensive versions of the double
ikat Patolas of Patan. Bell Guest House
can arrange a demonstration and a visit
to the home/workshop of a weaver family.
Tangaliya is a kind of rare weave that
involves adding knots using additional
weft threads during the process of weaving.
Bell Guest House can arrange a visit to
Vasatari, which is an important centre
for Tangaliya.
Khadi refers to fabrics made from handspun
thread and woven on a handloom. Mahatma
Gandhi promoted khadi as a way of creating
livelihood specially for home based rural
women workers. There are handloom/khadi
centres at Sayla, Wadhwan, Surendranagar,
Muli, Ranpur (woollen) and Arnej that
can be visited on day trips with Bell
Guest House as the base. Surendranagar
district, in which Sayla falls, is one
of the major handloom clusters of western
India.
Botad, approximately 50km from Sayla,
is an important centre for pottery. The
Botad potters today make many innovative
products like decorative items and even
ornaments.
Wadhwan, 37km from Sayla, is an important
centre for a bandhani, brass handicrafts,
etc.
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