Kalamkari (Hand painted fabrics with Natural dye)

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Kalamkari

Hand painted fabrics with Natural dye

Objective of the project is to rejuvenate the extincting Kalamkari by introducing a new range of designs inspired from ancient temple architectures and carvings for the women's wear following Indian wear silhouettes.

Kalamkari refers to a method of painting natural dyes onto cotton or silk fabric with a bamboo pen or kalam. The name Kalamkari translates as a pen(kalam) work(kari) in Hindi or Urdu, and was most likely derived from trade relationships between Persian and Indian merchants as early as the 10th century CE. European merchants also had names for this type of fabric decoration, the Portugese called it Pintado, the Dutch used the name Sitz, and the British preferred Chintz. The name Kalamkari is used prominently today, and is synonymous with both painted and hand block printed textiles that incorporate natural vegetable/organically derived dye stuffs. While there are many forms of Kalamkari throughout India and the world.
In India some of the Pichhwais (Cloth back Drops of Shrines) of Rajasthan and Gujarat are Kalamkari. Basically these are painted cloths used as decorations for the shrines of Krishna in his appearance as Srinathji in Rajasthan. They are of a wide range of techniques depending upon where they are made.

This project focused on the rejuvenation of extincting Kalamkari practice in Sri Kalahasti located in the Chittor District of southern Andhra Pradesh, near the famous temple-town Tirupati in India.

Patterns developed for this project are patchwork, yoke and borders.