Kantha Stitch by the word co-relates to the well known embroidery of West Bengal and Bangladesh. Kantha emboridery is predominantly done in the Birbhum district of West Bengal which is located 210 kms to north west of Kolkata. It is well connected by roadways and railways from the state capital.
Kantha traditionally was done using old soft dhotis and sarees by stacking them together and binding them by the running stitches along the edges. Done by the rural population it is also the major employment generating source for the less priviledged ones.
These days it is done as surface ornamenting on the sarees, stoles, dupattas, bedsheets, cushion cover as well.
A single saree takes anywhere from a month to 3 months depending upon the amount of work in it. Usually the work is distributed to the woman and man in the rural areas at their home. The women after doing their household chores take out the extra time to do the kantha embroidery work on the product. Once the embroidery work is completed, the finished work is collected from them and then it goes through the finishing process which involves washing, polishing, ironing and packing.
Since the amount of labour and time involved to do Kantha embroidery is much, thus was majorly done on pure silk base such as tussar silk, Ghachi tussar silk, mulberry silk (Bishnupuri silk). But to cut down on the cost and to penetrate the middle class section of the society now Kantha embroidery is as well done on Art (acronym for artificial) silk and cotton as well.
A pure silk Kantha saree can cost anywhere from 7k to 14k and above depending upon the work and time involved. Every piece made is unique in itself.
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