developing association

Hey guys,

It’s been a while since I have started this blog and now we are coming to the end of my research on kalamkari, it’s been a wonderful experience for me and I really appreciate your love and support so far and I will definitely look forward to write more blogs in future.

So in this post I’ll be talking about developing association of kalamkari and a case study of a designer who worked with kalamkari in his/her designs.

So for developing association there are many block printing traditions across the country – like Ajrakh, Sanganer, Bagru to name a few, what makes Kalamkari stand out are the beautiful Indo-Persian designs and the fresh earthy colors that result from use of natural dyes. The designs have a definite character; the more popular motifs being Persian like creepers, flowers and leaf designs all spread artistically across the fabric. The rich varieties of design elements are a result of fusion between the Hindu and Muslim cultures.

Bagru

Sanganer

Ajrakh

Ajrakh

As with most handicrafts, the end product (and at times the price tag) often belies the enormous effort that goes into making them. The meticulous craft of Kalamkari involves a series of laborious steps on the fabrics – to accentuate the beauty of the delicate patterns and the depth of colors from natural dyes. Skilled artisans are assigned to handle various tasks like making the blocks, preparing dyes, treating the cloth, washing, printing and drying. The services of at least 8 craftsmen are required in creating Kalamkari fabric of a single design.

For case study- designer NEETA LULLA 

A legend in the fashion world, a magician in bridal trousseau, in her 20 years of design career has always kept the quotient of royalty high in her creations with strokes of simplicity and earthiness.

Creator of Sridevi's rustic charm in Lamhe , the lavish yet elegant Aishwarya Rai as Jodha in Jodha Akbar and Paro in Devdas , Neeta Lulla has since then made a conscious effort to recreate in her costumes an age probably forgotten in time. n her promise to revive the vintage in contemporary tones, she worked with the Hastkala Kalamkari art form of Andhra carved on her bridal line showcased at the Lakme Fashion Week Winter/Festive 2011.

She went to Hyderabad where she got inspired by the delicate Kalamkari paintings and thought of reproducing them in her designs. The Srikalahasti style of Kalamkari was actually seen as paintings in temples of the coastal region of Andhra Pradesh. She wanted to revive the magnificence of this ancient art form of mythological exuberance in fashion.

She did not want to disturb the ethnicity of the Kalamkari craft. 

But she had definitely added a touch of contemporary flavor in a proportionate ratio keeping its classic grandeur intact while stitching it according to the demands of the present times. In blending of different styles, her collection showcases glimpses of Renaissance in the silhouettes and sartorial                                                    technique.

her collection is not only inspired by Kalamkari form of art but it is also an individual attempt to lend this almost extinct and obscure but beautiful handmade artistic template a recognition at wider platform. So what began as an inspiration ended being a promotion of an artistry nearing an unfortunate closure. Fashion she believes is about experimentation in resurrection and this is what she intended to achieve.

The prints of Kalamkari were given prime importance in her designs. She attired it with lots of French laces, Georgette coupled with lavish velvet cut work borrowed from the Renaissance period. In order to credit a heritage touch, she colored her ensemble in shades of deep red, gold, Persian green and rust. Traditional kundan and metal work on brocades of Banaras and chiffon added a sensuous quality to the fabric and texture of her creation.

So this is all for the research I have done on kalamkari. I hope u all liked it and I also hope it will help some of you to understand this beautiful handcrafted art form more. So this is the last post for my blog journey of kalamkari through my pen. Thank you

theme look and style

Hello,­

I hope you all liked my blog so far and I thank you all for being such a great audience, so without further ado let’s talk about the theme look and style of kalamkari.

So, in earlier times where, folk singers used to travel from one village to another narrating stories of Ramayana, Mahabharata to the village people. In course of time narrating stories slowly transformed into painting, giving way to a new art form called Kalamkari. This ancient style of hand painting on textiles using a kalamkari pen is primarily done in Srikalahasti and has come a long way. Different motifs like flowers, peacock, and paisleys were usually done on kalamkari sarees. Basic inspiration was from historical architecture, forts and temples. Presently wall panels, dupattas (stole), sarees and wall hangings are made. Kalamkari artists have absolute freedom for individual expression while painting; no two products are the same unless it is customer’s request. 

One of kind qualities of kalamkari painting is all about the vibrant colors used and no shading is done. 
Intricate detailing is given to each product. Different stories and scenes of Hindu mythology are revealed as a series in dupattas and sarees. Kalamkari can be done on any material unlike olden days where only cotton was used. Silk, Tussar, Chiffon, Georgette are some of the different materials where kalamkari painting can be done. Running designs are currently popular in Srikalahasti as people ask for new varieties in products so kalamkari artists have evolved from time to meet the customer’s demands. However Kalamkari has been present for many generations and the ancient technique of vegetable dyes are used, the craft totally depends upon natural vegetable dyes and nearby riverbanks. Kalamkari is a labor intensive work as a simple patterned sarees can take up to 20 days to complete and is washed 4 different times. Weather conditions matters a lot in kalamkari as rain water can ruin the outlines in the fabric where as high temperatures can make the colors spread.

The borders of the murals and textiles of Srikalahasti have stylistic similarities. describes the composition of the borders found at Srikalahasti— “The external border displays a lotus, or a ‘cartwheel’ design, followed by a thin band, another most popular motif used in kalamkari is the “TREE OF LIFE” this art requires a lot of sunlight as these paintings can only be dried only under the sunlight. The designs of the richly executed drapery of the figures have stylistic similarities with the textiles of Machilipatnam. Furthermore, the designs of creepers and diamond shaped lattices with floral motifs and Persian motifs can only be achieved with block prints. Woven textiles, which are comparatively more expensive than block-printed ones, are also identifiable in some cases, especially in the costumes of the royalty depicted in the paintings.

The color pattern used in kalamkari is unique and follows different themes. This is one of the main features of srikalahasti style of kalamkari art. Women figure are always depicted using yellow color, gods in blue and demons in red and green .the the backgrounds are generally red motif of lotus the most common theme followed in kalamkari is religion exhibiting  magnificent painting of sun chariot famous deities and scenes from great epics- Ramayana Mahabharata and great Indian mythological classics.Bed covers, curtains and other home furnishing are mostly designed using the machilipatnam style of kalamkari art with more of the Parisian motifs, creepers and flora using subtle Persian colors

This is what I know and researched about theme look and style of kalamkari. Next I’ll be talking about developing association and case study of a designer who used kalamkari in his/hers designs.

composition tools and techniques

Hello guys,

As most of you know that I have already mentioned in my previous post, what I m going to talk about in this blog post, but for those who don’t know, I m going to talk about composition tools and techniques used in kalamkari.

So, the materials and techniques for making the two types of kalamkaris are similar. In Srikalahasti, the cotton cloth is first washed with water thoroughly to remove starch and other oily substances. After drying, the cloth is dipped into buffalo milk mixed with myrobalan fruit dust, and then, after squeezing out the excess solution, it is dried again. Next, the initial drawing is done with charcoal pencil made from burnt twigs of the tamarind tree. For coloring, a pen made of bamboo is used. One side of the bamboo stick is carved to get a sharp tip. Near this tip, a piece of cotton cloth is wrapped and then tied with thread. The solution for drawing the outline is locally called “kasim” and is made by adding 500 grams of sugarcane jaggery, 100 grams of palm jaggery and 1 kilogram of rusted iron into 10 liters of water. The solution is kept for around twenty one days before it is used. The bamboo pen is dipped into kasim, gently squeezed to release the liquid and then used for drawing. A piece of cotton is kept at hand to blot the excessive ink from the surface. In the area that has to be painted red, initially a solution of alum water is applied with a blunt pen.
Generally, the background of these textiles is painted red. To get maroon, instead of red, a small amount of kasim is added to this solution. Separately, alizarin solution is prepared using 50 grams of alizarin diluted into water (for around 6 meters of cloth) and then added to around 15 liters of boiling water. The cloth, drawn with kasim and alum solution is dipped into the hot water and kept for around 45 minutes. The textiles are then washed in the river Swarnamukhi which is nearby. The river is shallow which makes it suitable for washing. After the process, the cloth is dried and again dipped into buffalo milk. For yellow, the dust of ripe myrobalan fruit, mixed with alum solution is used. For orange, chvalkodi and alizarin is mixed with the myrobalan-alum mixture. For blue, indigo is used. After this, the cloth is washed again in water before it is finally ready for use.

In Machilipatnam, the washing of the cotton fabrics is done at the Kalia Canal. Then a process similar to the one described above is used. In Machilipatnam, for the block printed textiles, line drawings are not necessary. The textiles produced here can be monochromatic or poly-chromatic and for each color, separate blocks are used. The manufacture of these textiles is a collaborative process. The whole unit is divided into several sub-units. The first sub-unit is the block maker’s workshop where the artisans are mostly from the carpenter’s community. For making the blocks, a cross section of teak wood is generally used. Blocks are carved using the relief process, where the positive area, which has the design that will be transferred onto the cloth, rises above the sunken negative area. In the printing sub-unit, the coloring process usually starts with the outlines and moves towards filling-in of the inner portions of the design.
 For poly-chromatic printing, the black and red portions of the design are printed first and then the cloth is washed and boiled. Unlike the process at Srikalahasti, alum solution is not used here for the red color. All the colors are stored in flat rectangular wooden vessels and covered with several layers of cotton cloth or jute.
After printing, the fabrics are dried and taken to the washing sub-unit. This unit is usually open from all four sides and consists of one or more open ovens. These ovens are, till today, fueled with rice husk and wood powder. Big semi-circular vessels made of iron are placed over these ovens for boiling the fabrics. While boiling, leaves from the local forest, known as gaja, are added to the water to fix the colors. After boiling, they are dried and sent for further printing with yellow and blue colors. After this, the fabrics are washed again in boiling water. Finally the finishing touches are given, which sometimes includes embellishment by hand

That’s all for composition tools and technique of kalamkari. Stay tuned for more information about kalamkari.

socio-cultural analysis

Hello,

I hope you guys like all my blog posts so far, so, in this post I m taking my research on kalamkari a little further and I m going to talk about the socio- cultural aspect about what influence it had on the art. You have already seen glimpse of it in my previous post, but now I will talk about it in detail.

So, as we all know that the geography and social structure of an area play an important role in the nature of its art forms. The availability of materials, existence of skillful artisans and a consistent clientele are all important factors.

The fact that there was ample production of cotton fabric in southern India ensured the supply of the raw materials to both Srikalahasti and Machilipatnam. Andhra Pradesh, along with neighboring Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are well known for the production of quality cotton even today. The other materials needed- natural colors and different kinds of wood (for the blocks and pens) were all available easily. One mandatory requirement is running water, as the process involves plenty of it. River Swarnamukhi, in Srikalahasti takes care of this requirement, whereas in Machilipatnam, the canal emptying into the Bay of Bengal acts as the source of water.

 Though geographically Machilipatnam and Srikalahasti are not too far away from one another, the proximity to the sea has worked more in favor of the former, as Machilipatnam was a distinguished port even in medieval India. The preserved samples of Kalamkari from museums from different parts of the world seem to indicate this too. For the English, Dutch and French traders, the port was well-known for the textile trade. Being a town of importance, both for the Vijayanagar rulers and Bahmani kingdom (later the Qutb Shahi kings); Machilipatnam was a ‘melting pot’ of cultures. In Srikalahasti, textiles were mainly produced for ritualistic purposes and their use remained confined within the temple space. Vijayanagar rulers like Krishnadevaraya, patronized the Srikalahastisvara Shiva temple, a fact which is mentioned in the inscriptions from that time period. This point to the fact that this region was already a distinguished site of pilgrimage before the 16th century. Comparing not only the purpose of making the textiles, but also the cultural atmosphere surrounding the workshops of the artists it is evident that the textile works are greatly influenced by the local geography.

That’s all for the socio- cultural aspect of kalamkari, in my next post I’ll be talking about the composition tools and techniques of the art.  

visual diary

 Hey guys,

So I m here again with another blog post…. But this post is different from my earlier posts. As u all know that I m a design student and  I’m writing all of these blog posts to share my research on kalamkari and about how I chose it as a topic of my research which is basically my module assignment( I have talked about it in my first blog). So, coming back on the topic I m dedicating this blog post to my visual diary.  I know you all are wondering what exactly this visual diary I m talking about is? So, it is basically an art journal or you can say an art diary often contains sketches as well as texts and occasionally contains mix-media like pictures or collages it is kept by artistes and designers to sketch down there ideas before finally start working on them.

So now I’m going to show u some pictures of my visual diary. Where I have drawn and wrote about Kalamkari. It also contains my visit to Crafts Museum and Dilli Haat about what things I saw there.

History and evolution of kalamkari

Hello guys,

I'm back with a new blog post and as i have told u in my previous post, in this post i m going to talk about the history and evolution of kalamkari.

so by reading my previous posts you all basically know that kalamkari is the patterns and the designs done on the fabric are very colorful and vibrant and are mostly natural vegetable dyes and synthetic colors are not used in kalamkari. The kalamkari paintings are widely distributed in various products like saris, drapes, hand towels, wall paintings, prayer rugs wrappers, bed cover, door covers and dress materials. In olden days  which dates back to the period between 13^th and 19^th centuries  specially in the state of Andhra Pradesh where groups of singers, musicians and painters called chitrakattis kept moving from village to village only to depict the stories of Hindu mythologies in the form of street plays and generated income for their living.

The chitrakattis slowly came up with new ideas for the better understanding of the people where they staged their plays using large bolts of canvas painted on the spot with basic means and dyes extracted from plants. This is how kalamkari was introduced in the country. Then many Hindu temples started having large panels in the temple premises with kalamkari work on it illustrating the episodes of Indian mythology just similar to that of the stained glasses of the Christian cathedrals. Kalamkari soon flourished as an art form which found its culmination in the middle ages during the reign of the rich Golconda sultanate of Hyderabad. The mughal rulers of Golconda and commanded provinces appreciated and patronized the art of kalamkari and also called the skilled craftsmen of this craft as ‘qualamkars’ it is from the word’ qualamkars that the craft form got its name kalamkari.

Soon the products of kalamkari paved way for trade and commerce in ancient India concentrated mainly in the province of Andhra Pradesh. Srikalahasti and machilipatnam were the two major centers for kalamkari work in Andhra Pradesh. Water being one of the most essential components for the kalamkari art among all the centers, Srikalahasti emerged as a major center for kalamkari work because of the steady supply of clean flowing water it received from the river. The kalamkari market had demands both from the domestic and international markets and was exported to different parts of the world resulting the major source of trade. This form of Indian textiles was also used as a form of currency in spice trade in ancient Times

Being required even in other parts of the world the artisans of kalamkari also had to modernize with new ideas and themes. The artisans came up with innovative patterns and ideas highly influenced by Persian motifs, Hindu mythology and religious symbols. Kalamkari art has been practiced by many families in Andhra Pradesh and over the generations has constituted their livelihood

But in the year of 1950 the art of kalamkari had a major setback and almost became extinct due to ignorance and revived back only because of the demand from the international market by the efforts put by the government and crafts men behind these paintings. 

During the British period they had lot of affinity for this art and they started using this as decorative element for clothing.

That's all for the history and evolution, stay tuned to for more information about kalamkari.

Kalamkari or Pen art

Hello,

This is my second blog post, if you guys have already read my previous post, then you’ll know how I came up with the topic kalamkari. So in this blog I am going to tell you about what I found about Kalamkari in my first week of research

So what is basically kalamkari..? KALAMKARI is a folk art of Andhra Pradesh in which painting and printing is done on a fabric.  The kalamkari name is derived from two words “Kalam” means ‘pen’ and “Kari” means ‘work’ which literally means pen-work . It is a hand painting as well as block printing using vegetable dyes.

There are two styles of doing kalamkari; one is the srikalahasti style which is more of a painted technique and the other one machilipatnam style in which block printing is done on a fabric.

kalamkari done by pen  in srikalahasti

kalamkari block printing (machlipatnam)

Srikalahasti is a village near the temple town of tirupathi which is an ancient center, so because of this it is more influenced by the gods and goddess and Hindu mythology. However the same craft has an equally popular variant, which is prevalent in a small town called Pedana, about 13 km from Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh. Unlike srikalahasti it has creepers, floras which are influenced by Persian motifs.

block printed kalamkari with Persian motifs

kalamari painting of lord Krishna

Usually vegetable dyes are used but nowadays the uses of pigment dyes have also started. The dyes are obtained by extracting colors from different parts of the plants like roots, leaves, Minerals.

In Srikalahasti, the textiles are literally painted with pens made out of bamboo and cotton, in Machilipatnam, the line drawing done with a pen is transferred onto wooden blocks which are carved and then used to print fabric. In Machilipatnam, the production is carried out in karkhanas (commercial workshops), where the block makers, washers and printers work under the same roof. In Srikalahasti, the textiles are produced by small family units where the members work together. This essay discusses the history, stylistic development, materials and techniques of kalamkari at both Srikalahasti and Machalipatnam.

 So this is all about a brief introduction to Kalamkari. Next post onwards, I will discuss the history and evolution of this beautiful art. Stay tuned. 

When shop hopping become serious business

Hey guys,

I'm writing a blog for the first time ever and I'm pretty excited about it. So I'm a student in pearl academy of fashion and this blog is basically based on my college module: Introduction to Design Tools and Techniques where we were given few topics like Indian-crafts, International-crafts, Folk-arts, Tribal-arts and Design Movements, in which we had to do a lot of  research and had to visit places to gathered as much information we can get. So in order to do that we visited a couple of places.

 Day 1 we went to Crafts Museum located in Pragati Maidan (New Delhi). It was my first visit there and I had no clue about how it was going to be and I was very excited to go there and It was an amazing places to see different types crafts and arts of India, one can actually learn a lot about Indian arts and crafts, tradition, religion and various other things. When I went there I saw some really interesting stuff. I went to a place where there was small courtyard with different types of houses in different states of India and it was such a great experience to see so many different cultures under one roof. As I move forward to see more, I saw that some people were dancing, singing and playing instruments of their region from where they belong and when I went to them asked about the dance and where they came from then one of them answered that they are from Odisa and this form of dancing is known as Ghumura, a tribal folk dance performed on a folk music. Then there were shops nearby of different states from Gujarat, Rajasthan to Kashmir to Assam and many more. Moving ahead from there I went to the gallery where all the arts and crafts were displayed, there was appliqué and patchwork of Gujarat, bandhani (Tie and Dye technique) and mirror work of Gujarat. chamba rumal of Himachal Pradesh, kashida and jamwar (techniques & style of Embroidery) of Jammu and Kashmir, bhandhej of Rajasthan, patola sarees of Gujarat, brocade and silk sarees of Banaras, zardozi embroidery of Uttar Pradesh, Phulakri embroidery of Punjab, this was all what I saw in the museum but there are many other interesting things kept there and one should must visit it and it’s an amazing experience. 

On Day 2 we went to Dilli Haat, unlike the crafts museum I have visited Dilli Haat so many times and shopped a lot, but this time it was different I went there with a pen and a notebook in my hand, and when I start looking at the things I realized that I had never observed them in detail before. Whenever something caught my fancy, I used to buy ut without understanding the details of it, so it was completely a different experience to go to Dilli Haat to research. So I explored it and learned a lot and took a lot of pictures.

People were selling different textiles, crafts, paintings, accessories and many other things, I saw some really different things there which caught my attention as I never saw before like I saw mosaic lamps with embedded colored glasses of Jaipur Rajasthan, handmade grass baskets and kitchen utilities of Mirzapur Uttar Pradesh, there were handmade bells which is made by the mixture of five different metals and it was  from Kutch Gujarat, then I saw some bamboo craft hanging from the ceiling so I asked the shopkeeper about them, he said they are handmade bamboo lamps from Odisa and they use bamboo strips and weave them all by their hands, then there was blue pottery of Delhi, after that I saw some people making different things there, at first I saw a potter who was making clay pots. Then there was a man painting on cow which was made up of paper Mache and the craft was from Bhopal, then a man was making shoes (jutti). Then I found a group of people from Rajasthan performing kalbeliya folk dance.

Then there was an interesting event going on India-Iran craft interaction, where there were many interesting Iranian crafts and textiles were present and many craftsmen were making and demonstrating the techniques of different crafts and arts, they were demonstrating Iranian calligraphy art, block printing of Iran, handmade carpet weaving.

That event was basically showing the similarities between the techniques of making crafts and textiles between the two country the only thing which differs in the crafts was there culture and traditions otherwise both the countries are using  almost similar techniques in there crafts and textiles. 

So these were the two visits where we got a lot of knowledge about the Indian and international crafts and arts, after that our step two was to choose one thing from the five topics which were given to us. So I researched about them a little more then I finally decided that I m gonna work on kalamkari painting and block printing of Andhra Pradesh because I found it very interesting as it includes both painting and block-printing techniques which makes it different from other block printed arts so because of that I chose it as my topic.