Textile Hand Printing

Hand printed textiles is a craft in which cloth is dyed with hand or

Printed using shapes. Various types of hand printing practiced in India are block printing, batik, kalmkari (hand printing by pen) and bandhani (tie and die).

Main clusters:

Process:

Sanganeri style printing

Some of the important centres of this craft are in the states of Andhra Pradesh (Hyderabad, Machalipattnam), Uttar Pradesh (Varanasi, Farrukabad), Orissa, Madhya Pradesh (Bagh, Behrongarh, Indore, Mandsar, and Burhanpur), Gujarat (Ahmedabad, Rajkot, and Kutch), Maharashtra and Rajasthan (Bagru, Chittroli, Sanganer, Jaipur, and Jodhpur).

Originally natural dyes were used for printing, however, in the current scenario they have been replaced by chemical and artificial colours.

Hand printing is undertaken on both cotton and silk fabrics of varying counts.

Main tools for hand printing (block printing) are wooden/metal blocks of different shapes, paatiya (table padded with jute and covered with cloth on which the fabric to be printed is spread across), brushes (for cleaning the flocks of wax), heating vessel (to maintain temperature of the mendh), indigo vats, steel chisels, and metal sheets.

Block printing is a common art practiced all over India. Steps involved in Mendh Ki chapai (block printing)of Rajasthan are shown below. The process in its entirety takes about 15-20 days. Washing and

Drying are carried out after every step.

Sourcing of raw material

Grey fabric is sourced from Erode in Tamil Nadu