SIDR Craft
Artisan & Partner Stories
SIDR Craft
About
SIDR Craft is a family enterprise established in 1992 by brothers Abduljabbar Khatri and Abdullah Khatri in Kuchchh, Gujarat. Bandhani is a Khatri family tradition — though the brothers’ parents’ generation had abandoned the craft, Abduljabbar and Abdullah revived it and have made it their life’s work. Today SIDR Craft produces exceptional bandhani and shibori textiles for an international clientele, while creating meaningful economic opportunities for women artisans across eight villages in Kutch.
The brothers have received the UNESCO Seal of Excellence in 2006 and 2007, been invited to the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market multiple times, and been finalists for the International Folk Art Alliance Living Traditions Award.
The Work
Bandhani — from the Hindi word “baandhna,” meaning “to tie” — is one of India’s oldest resist-dye traditions, practiced by the Khatri community in Kutch for centuries. The process begins before a drop of dye touches the fabric: a woman artisan pinches tiny points of cloth and ties each one individually with thread, creating intricate patterns of dots across the entire surface. A single scarf can hold thousands of these tied points. Once the tying is complete, the cloth is submerged in dye — the tied points resist the color and emerge as the pattern. Only when the threads are removed is the full design revealed.
The process is demanding and highly skilled. Bandhani scarves take weeks, often months to complete. No two pieces are exactly the same. SIDR Craft has also mastered itajime shibori — a clamp-resist dyeing technique — and now produces scarves using both traditions, sometimes in a single piece.
Impact
- SIDR Craft works with approximately 200 craftswomen across 8 villages in Kuchchh, Gujarat
- For many families, income from SIDR Craft is a primary — and in some cases sole — means of support
- The work preserves and evolves a centuries-old bandhani tradition rooted in the Khatri community of western India
- Recognised with the UNESCO Seal of Excellence (2006, 2007) and multiple international folk art honours
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