MAKING A PAITHANI SARI

A special feature of Paithani is that no mechanical means like the jacquard are used to produce the designs. Skilled weavers count the threads of the wrap for each part of the design and using tiny cloth pirns or "tillies", interlock the silk or gold yarn on the weft with them

It takes about a month to weave the simplest Paithani and from 5-9 months to make a more elaborate (brocade) one. Traditionally paithani used to be a plain sari with heavy zari border and ornamental pallav. However, today paithanis with motifs are in vogue: stars, circles, peacocks, flowers etc. The paithani borders and pallavs are heavily adorned with these motifs and the sari is given the name after the design on it. Tota-maina (parrot), bangdi-mor (peacock with bangle design), asavali (flower and vine), narli (coconut), are all descriptive of paithanis. In olden days, the zari used in making paithanis was drawn from pure gold. But now silver is substituted for gold thus making the paithanis more affordable to many people.