Kalamkari Kurtas For Women

Kalamkari is a type of hand-painted or block-printed cotton textile, produced in Iran and India. Its name originates in the Persian, which is derived from the words kalam (pen) and kari (craftsmanship), meaning drawing with a pen. Only natural dyes are used in kalamkari and it involves twenty-three steps. They are used to make beautiful kurtas.

Ancient Era

In ancient times, groups of singers, musicians and painters, called chitrakars, moved from village to village to tell the village dwellers, the great stories of Hindu mythology. They illustrated their accounts using large bolts of canvas painted on the spot with simple means and dyes extracted from plants. In the same way, one found in the Hindu temples large panels of kalamkari depicting the episodes of Indian mythology.

Modern Era

In modern times it's replaced by digital. The art took a turn-over and updated digitally to fit in the glove of time. In this era, new types and new techniques are introduced and the digital files of kalamkari (pen work) are totally introduced widely all over the regions of India.

Visit LIMEROAD and get the perfect kurta for any of your favorite occasions and get yourself a perfect look.

Kalamkari art has been practiced by many families in Andhra Pradesh, some villages in Tamilnadu by migrants from Telugu speaking families and over the generations have constituted their livelihood. Kalamkari had a certain decline, then it was revived in India and abroad for its craftsmanship.       

Technique

Seeping it in astringents and buffalo milk and then drying it under the sun. Afterward, the red, black, brown, and violet portions of the designs are outlined with a mordant and cloth is then placed in a bath of alizarin. The next step is to cover the cloth, except for the parts to be dyed blue, in wax, and immerse the cloth in indigo dye.

Color Fixing

Dyes for the cloth are obtained by extracting colors from various roots, leaves, and mineral salts of iron, tin, copper, and alum.[8] Various effects are obtained by using cow dung, seeds, plants and crushed flowers to obtain natural dye. Along with buffalo milk, myrobalan is used in kalamkari. Alum is used in making natural dyes and also while treating the fabric. Alum ensures the stability of the color in kalamkari fabric.

Themes

Kalamkari specifically depicts epics such as the Ramayana or Mahabharata. However, there are recent applications of the kalamkari technique to depict Buddha and Buddhist art forms.

The Machilipatnam style of Kalamkari is one of the two styles of Kalamkari works present in India, with the other being, Srikalahasti style. It mainly uses vegetable dyes which are applied to the fabric with the help of wooden blocks.

There's been diversity in the patterns and designs available at LIMEROAD for your perfect festive wear or a casual wear. Go get yourself one.