Kalamkari Sarees

Kalamkari  style is a type of handpainting style that is done on cotton and silk type fabric by using natural dyes. The word “kalamkari” where kalam means done through pen and” kari” means the creativity or craftmanship.

The kalamkari is mostly produced in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana region. 

These days kalamkari sarees are in tradition.

 Technique:

The first step is to choose the cloth and the dye colour.

The cloth is then bleached to avoid the color bleeding with cow dung including myrobalan and milk solution. Iron acetate is used for doing the painting that resists  the solid spaces. The cloth is dyed in different colors using the wax resist. 

The cloth is then washed in running water to get rid of cow ‘s milk and then the cloth is dried under sun. 

After this process, the cloth/ fabric is ready for the painting. The artists draws the designs on the fabrics .

Before this, natural dyes are prepared by the artists that are used on the cloth/ fabric to fill the drawings and designs. 

Earthy colors like indigo,  mustard, rust, black and green are used in kalamkari art. 

The black color is extracted by blending jaggery  , water and iron fillings which are used by the artists for outlining the drawings and designs. 

Mustard /yellow color is prepared by boiling pomegranate peels.

Blue  dye is prepared by indigo and green dye is prepared by mixing blue and yellow dyes.

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