Kalamkari Painting is a type of Indian folk textile art that involves free hand drawing and painting or printing on cloth, mostly cotton.The word is derived from the Persian words kalam (pen) and kari (craftmanship), meaning drawing with a pen.The craft made at Pedana in Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh.
Techniques of Kalamkari Painting:
The fabric used to paint is treated before, during and after painting or printing. It is also washed and dried as many times. The natural dyes used are usually in the colours of red (from Indian madder root), yellow (from mango bark and pomegranate seed), black (from myrobalan fruit), blue (from indigo flowers) and green (by painting yellow on blue). Here are the processes or stages in Kalamkari painting:
- Fabric is bleached using cow or goat dung solution and sun dried for some days.
- It is then treated with a solution made with the myrobalan fruits (usage of ripe fruits in Masulipatnam and raw fruits in Srikalahasti).
- To prevent the colour from mixing with other colours, milk is added in the solution.
- Outlines are made with iron acetate solution, using wooden pen in Srikalahasti and blocks in Masulipatnam.
- Alum is used as a mordant to separate areas for painting with different colours. Flowing water washes the mordant away after every step.
- Colours are dyed in different ways to make the dye stay on the fabric. Fabric is boiled in red, immersed in blue and hand painted in yellow.
- To separate colours from each other the hiding portion is covered with wax.
- Artisans colour portions for yellow and green in the end. Green is basically produced by painting yellow dye over blue.
- The final stage of Kalamkari painting involves washing and drying.
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