It is a form of painting cotton fabrics with a kalam i.e. pen, which involves a sharp-pointed pierced bamboo regulating the flow of colour on the fabric.
The kalamkari artists make use of special pens which are particularly crafted for this purpose from the bamboo tree.
Only natural dyes are used in Kalamkari, which is an ancient style of hand painting done on cotton or silk fabric with a tamarind pen.
Kalamkari is a highly popular form of hand-painted or block-printed cotton textile and paintings, practised in Andhra Pradesh.
It is a form of painting cotton fabrics with a kalam i.e. pen, which involves a sharp-pointed pierced bamboo regulating the flow of colour on the fabric.
Kalamkari is known to be a healing fabric, as the colors, motifs and the narration of magical forms create an aura that heals an individual physically and spiritually.
The print which only uses natural and plant dyes is competed with a complicated twenty-three steps process, which makes it labor-intensive and thus expensive than others.
The Srikalahasti style of Kalamkari, where the "kalam" or pen is used for freehand drawing of the subject.
In this era, new techniques are introduced and the digital files of Kalamkari have been introduced widely over the regions of India and Iran.