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Craft Profile |
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Hand Block Printing
Block printing is an ancient art that has been practiced in India for thousands of years. India has been renowned for its printed and dyed cotton cloth since the 12th century and the craft flourished as the fabric received royal patronage. Though the earliest records mention the printing centers in the south, the craft seems to have been prevalent all over India. The earliest centers for block printing seem to have been located in what are now the states of Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. From these centers, the craft appears to have spread gradually with the migration of craftworkers to other areas. Centers such as Sanganer in Rajasthan rose to prominence in the 18th century. Other centers such as Serampur developed even later, becoming the hub of block printing in West Bengal only in the 1940s. Now, there is the increasing phenomenon of block printing units being set up in urban areas including Calcutta and Jaipur city.
Ajrak Printing
Noor Jehan Bilgrami aptly describes Ajrak, the cloth of the inhabitants of Sindh, as an art and a tradition. The blocks used are beautiful specimens of wood carving. Sindh is the actual birthplace of Ajrak cloth. Ajrak has been in Sindh since the era of Mohenjodaro, one of the oldest civilizations in the world, or even before that. However, the true origin of the word "Ajrak" is unknown. In Arabic, Ajrak means Fabric- woven and patterned - is a symbol of the culture where dreams and patterns are translated onto the fabric. Dyes of indigo and vermillion red form lattice patterns on the fabric through a laborious and painstaking blue or indigo. Blue color is dominantly used in Ajrak printing and hence the word ascribed. Also, Sindh was traditionally a large producer of indigo and cotton cloth and both used to be exported to the Middle East. It is unknown whether the word Ajrak came from Arabic to Sindhi or added from Sindhi to Arabic. Men use it as a turban, a cummerbund, and wrap it around the shoulders. Women use it as a dupatta and chaddar or as a shawl. The Ajrak fabric is usually about 2.5-3meters. It is patterned in intense jewel like colors. The dominant colors are rich crimson and a deep indigo. A little bit of white and black is also used to give definition to the geometric patterns. The geometrical designs in the fabric seem to echo principles of Sufism or Islamic spiritualism that has several great proponents in the ancient land of Sindh. The symbolism of geometric patterns is generated from the number one through the concept of symmetry — these repeated patterns representing cosmic processes that extend in all directions.
Bagh block printing
Bagh printing in its current form started in 1962 when a group of Muslim Khatri weavers migrated from the nearby Manavar to Bagh. They were originally from Sindh (now in Pakistan), and had since migrated to Marwad in Rajasthan and then to Manavar. With them they brought the block printing technique, which is now the unique Bagh printing style.
Batik
Batik, an art which originated in India, has come a long way from being a mere handicraft. The word batik actually means 'wax writing'. It is a way of decorating cloth by covering a part of it with a coat of wax and then dyeing the cloth. The waxed areas keep their original color and when the wax is removed the contrast between the dyed and undyed areas makes the pattern. Batik is very often considered a craft like ceramics, pottery or even needlework. Although it is a household word all over the world, it is still overlooked by art critics who do not consider it an art form. There are several countries known for their batik creations, starting with India where it originated. After that it moved to Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the West.
Indigo dyeing
How does nature produce colors? What is the chemistry of the plant, the soil, the water and the air that brings forth the reds of leaves before they fall, of the scarlet and purple of berries, the incandescent orange of persimmon, of the orange itself, and everywhere the myriad shades of green, no two alike? It’s a mystery, but human beings longing to capture the colors of nature in spun, woven and knotted textiles is as old as textile making itself. Colors on wool still fresh today are found in a carpet of the 5th century B.C. from the frozen tombs of Siberia, in the ancient skills of China, the brocades of Turkey and the famed cotton muslin’s and pintados (the Portuguese word for painted cloth) exported for centuries from India. The bounty of nature combined with the skill of the dyers has produced from the earliest times up to the mid-nineteenth century, vast quantities of painted, printed and dyed textiles for use and trade. In India, it was the brilliant and permanent dyeing of the most difficult of all the fibers --cotton--which was the skill in which this country was unrivalled in ancient times.
Kalamkari Paintings
The term Kalamkari is derived from kalam, the Persian word for pen and kari (work) and literally means ‘pen work’.Kalamkari is the art of painting cotton fabrics with a kalam, a sharp pointed bamboo stick padded with hair or cotton and tied with a string on one end to regulate the flow of color. The art was exclusive to cotton fabric. The style practiced in Kalahasti maintains more traditional methods of outlining features and drawing designs using a kalam rather than blocks. The art of Kalamkari comprises hand-drawn, painted and dyed wall cloth, in natural colors. From giant tapestries to small squares, these cloth paintings with their densely packed characters and storyboard narratives have a freshness about them.
Natural dyeing
Natural dyes matter without chemical processing. The wide range of climatic zones and altitudes in India has resulted in a rich biodiversity that has gifted us with many sources of natural dyes. The ancient people used exclusively dyestuffs comprise those colorants (dyes and pigments) that are obtained from vegetables, plants, fruits or animal of vegetables, minerals and animal origin, all easily obtained in their own vicinity. It is not possible to locate the place of antiquity where dyeing was first known as an art. Evidence leads us to believe that different civilisations each had their own methods practiced. It is said that the Egyptians learned this art as early as probably the Indians and the Chinese.
The use of vegetable dyes virtually became a fine art. The artisans’ knowledge of chemical technology with respect to the use of vegetable dyes was not confined only to the usage of dyes alone. It extended to the various other vegetables and mineral products like astringent myrobalams, plant ashes, alum and iron acetate sulfates, the chemical properties of dung, organic processes like fermentation, a combination of the conjunctive use of oil and dye, which set off a chemical reaction and react with the dyes to yield a permanent, washable varied color shade with quality.
Bandhini
Different forms of tie and dye have been practiced in India. Indian Bandhani began about 5000 years ago. The art of Bandhani is highly skilled process. The technique involves dyeing a fabric which is tied tightly with a thread at several points, thus producing a variety of patterns like Leheriya, Mothra, Ekdali and Shikari depending on the manner in which the cloth is tied. Bandhani was introduced in Jamnagar when the city was founded 400 years ago. Bandhani fabrics reign supreme in Rajasthan and Gujarat which are home to an astounding variety of traditional crafts. Century-old skills continue to produce some of the most artistic and exciting wares in these two states and are popular all over the world. Rajasthan is a land of vibrant colors. These colors are a striking part of the life there and are found in the bustling bazaars, in fairs and festivals, in the costumes worn and in the traditional paintings and murals.
Hand screen printing
Hand screen printing is a common technique that has been carried out for years in the textile pockets of the country. It is essentially a stencil process. An open mesh fabric is used to hold in place the 'islands' of the stencil design through which inks are forced using a flexible blade of rubber or polyurethane called a squeegee. Screen printing is not as old as processes such as etching. However, it was invented in various centers, appearing in several locations around the world. Some of the earliest applications can be found in medieval Japan. It appeared in Europe in the 18th century, particularly in France for stenciling patterns on to fabric. In the 19th century it remained a simple process using fabrics like organdy stretched over wooden frames. Only in the twentieth century did the process become mechanized, usually for printing flat posters, packaging and fabrics. It became widely used to print colored wallpaper as a cheaper alternative to printing with wooden blocks. |
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