Khun is a beautiful fabric, made of cotton but almost appears to be made of silk thanks to the lovely sheen it has.
It is traditionally used to make saree blouses and worn as a contrast to the colour and design of the saree. Khun is available in a variety of colours and the more vibrant ones like the green and ochre yellow in the picture or turquoise blue and purple, are my favourites. Although available in Mumbai at Dadar, I asked my mom to source it from Pune where I knew I would be able to find a wider variety of colours.
Wanting to have something very unique and traditional, I had the idea of using khun as part of the table setting when we hosted people for dinner. The picture below is the table setting for a Diwali dinner, where I decided to fold the material in a way that the border would appear right down the centre of my table.
Khun is a really beautiful fabric and I have to find more ways to use it at home!
Priya
The vili was primarily used to cut vegetables. The curved blade would be pulled out in front of the wooden platform. You sat on the wooden platform and cut the vegetables, keeping a plate under the blade to keep the chopped pieces. And boy, have I seen women cutting with an ease that could challenge any professional chef with a fancy set of knives! Not for me though…I probably would have lost my fingers if I tried cutting on this blade.