By: Diorama Designs
Artisanal Story
Disha Gupta
Label : Diorama Designs
Kalamkari the traditional art of hand painting in India is very old craft that is pre dominantly practised in the southern region of India
Also known as Pedana Kalamkari is practiced in Masulipatnam, which was a very well-known ancient port for trade. This helped Kalamkari to reach other places in the world like Greece.
Masulipatnam style of Kalamkari
Masulipatnam style of Kalamkari
Sri Kalahasti style of Kalamkari
The Srikalahasti style of Kalamkari painting focuses on the painting of various Hindu Gods and Goddesses and scenes from Hindu mythology like the Puranas, Ramayana, and Mahabharata.
All tools and raw materials used in the production of Kalamkari are handmade and use natural materials.
The Kalam of Kalamkari
The Kalam used to paint is a pen made of bamboo reed, with a cloth rolled over it and secured with cotton thread. Typically, there are 2 types of kalams: one for drawing outline and the other for filling colors.
– Plain gaada cloth is prepared by soaking it in myrobalan and milk solution. This helps the fabric to absorb the required metallic mordant and prevents natural dyes from spreading. – Once dry, outlines are hand painted using the Kalam and charcoal made from burnt tamarind twigs. The patterns vary from flora and fauna, god figures and animal forms.
– Tamarind stems are burned and made into charcoal used for black, specially in the initial sketching – Kasim kaaram – purified scrap iron, cane jaggery and palm jaggery are permitted to get black color – Chavala Kodi and surudu chekka help to obtain red and green shades – Pomegranate skin is used to obtain light yellow color – Katachu is boiled to obtain lighter brown colour – Blue is obtained from the Indigo plant-indigo tinctoria – Mangusta is used to obtain pink and red colours
There are total 17 to 26 steps involved in hand-painting of Kalamkari. A slow, involved and vigorous process, making one Kalamkari cloth can take about 20 days!