Treatment

The name Telia Rumal is taken from the words 'tel' meaning oil, relating to the dye process requiring an extensive oil treatment and 'rumal' meaning square or kerchief. These rumals are approximately one metre square, of fine cotton yarn. Cotton is a cellulose material requiring treatment called 'mordanting' to enable the dye to bond with the fibre.

The first part of the treatment requires the warp and weft yarns, having been soaked overnight in water to be worked by hand in a bath made from sheep dung. After working very thoroughly, the yarn is squeezed out and hung in the sun for 24 hours.

Meanwhile the pods from the castor oil plant are burned to make ash. This ash is mixed well with water. After  soaking for several hours, the top liquid is taken, putting the residue aside. Oil is added to the liquid and the mixture is put in the sun until it turns slightly white and is ready to use.

The yarn treated with dung is submerged in the oil-ash mixture, worked well for 15 minutes, then squeezed out and stored overnight. In the morning it is hung in the sun. In the evening the oil treatment is repeated and continued for sixteen days.

Now the warp will be prepared for the design stage.   Follow on to see the next steps.

Design Tie-Dye Weaving

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The warp is prepared on a warping mill, a very fast method to get the threads even and arranged with a cross at numerous places along the length. The cross helps to keep the threads in order so that they remain organised.