Kantha

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for the town in Burma see Kantha, Burma

Kantha stitched saris on display at Amar Kutir

A kantha is a type of embroidery craft popular in Bangladesh and in West Bengal, India. The use of kantha is popular in saris that are used by women in Bengal. Kantha is really the name for the embroidery itself, rather than the sari per se. Any garment or cloth with kantha embroidery (which forms or outlines decorative motifs with running stitch) is a kantha garment.

Kantha stitching is also used to make simple quilts. Women in Bengal typically use old saris and cloth and layer them with kantha stitch to make a light blanket or throw or bedspread, especially for children. Kantha is currently very popular with tourists visiting Bengal and is a specialty of Bolpur/Shantiniketan.

Another form of running stitch decorative stitching is the Japanese sashiko quilting.

Bengali housewives had lot of time in hand beside their daily chores. That era thread and cloth were not easily available to common people. So they started to use overused sarees or dhotis by stitching them up. They looked quite drab and like rags, so they took out strand of thread from the colorful border of the sarees and started to make simple designs with them. That is how simple kantha work started. Many of us have seen our grandmother's handwork on quilts made from throw-away sarees. Now this has become such a huge fashion.

Kantha also means throat. The Name Nilakanth is given to Lord Shiva, literally meaning "blue throat" after he swallowed the poison that arose as a result of the churning of the ocean. It is also known as the "Throat chakra".

Because it means throat, it's also a style of necklace that lies close to the throat, open at the back.

Also used as an adjective to describe a style of necklace that lies close to the throat, open at the back.

[edit] Kantha embroidery of West Bengal

Kantha Embroidery is the predominantly the most popular form of embroidery practised by the rural women. The traditional form of Kantha embroidery was done the soft dhotis and saris. The thread for this craft was drawn out of the borders of the used cloth. It is a simple running stitch made on the edges. When five to six layers of the cloth were embroidered together it formed a quilt. Fewer layers of the cloth is used to make clothes for other purposes. The outer layers of the cloth comprises white or light colored clothes which made the embroidery perceptible. Depending on the use of the finished product they were known as Lepkantha, Sujni Kantha etc. The mebroidered cloth is used as stoles for women and shawls. The clothes also find use as covers for mirrors, boxes, pillows etc. The entire cloth is covered with running stitches and usually has beautiful folk motifs, floral motifs, animal and birds figures and geometrical shapes. Themes from day to day activities are also a common subject for the embroidery. Such stitches on the cloth give it a slight wrinkled wavy effect. The contemporary Kantha is not necessarily done on old multiple layered saris or dhotis. It can also be seen on the present day garments like the sarees, dupatta, shirts for men and women, bedding and other furnishing fabrics. For these fabrics and dresses the base fabric used is cotton and silk.