What is katan silk?

Katan, a thread, prepared by twisting a different number of silk filaments according to requirement gives a firm structure to the background fabric. Katan is a plain woven fabric with pure silk threads. It consists of two threads twisted together and is mostly used for the warp of light fabrics.

Katan can be further classified into the following:

1. Katan Butidar: Fabric with Katan warp and weft with butis (designs and patterns) in gold or resham (untwisted silk).

2. Katan Butidar Mina: Katan Butidar with Mina work (design made out of zari thread) in butis.

3. Katan Butidar Paga Saree: Saree with Katan warp, resham weft, small butis all over body, closely spaced (about 10 cm (4") apart), about 5 cm (2") wide border and 30-55 cm (12-22") wide pallu.

4. Katan Brocade: This is a fabric with Katan Warp and Katan weft with figures in gold thread with or without mina, with the traditional styles being ‘katrawan’, ‘kardhwan’ and ‘Fekva’.

1. Katrawan: A technique or design in which the floating portions of the extra weft (laid from selvege to selvege) at the back of the fabric is cut.

2. Kardhwan:

3. Fekva

5. Jangla: Plain fabric of Katan warp and Katan weft, with all-over floral designs in an extra weft of either silk or zari.

6. Katan Katrawan Mina: A fabric in Katrawan style with Mina.

Katan Motifs and designs

These days the currently used designs & motifs involving Katan are:

* Katan Jal Set: Over the years with minor innovations and influences from other materials, Jangla is now known as ‘Katan Jal Set’.

* Katan Buti Zari Resham: Katan Butidar has evolved over time to become Katan Buti Zari Resham.

* Katan Stripe and Katan Check are also popular variants found in the markets.