Cotton Cloth (Kalamkari)- Noopur Kapadia

Cloth is something we are so accustomed with since childhood that it just seems second nature to us. We always think of cloth as just some piece of fabric but there is so much attached to that piece. Each cloth has its own story, history, political meaning, social meaning, cultural meaning, method of formation and technique. There are so many factors that make one fabric different from the other.

To know and understand more about cloths I picked up a traditional piece of cloth. It was a small piece of cloth with Kalamkari work done on it. When I picked the cloth I tried to read it with my senses. Visually when I looked at it, it was piece of yellow ochre cloth. When I looked closely I felt the threads were very closely woven together without leaving any holes. The cloth was quite thick. while feeling it the texture felt very rough. It was not smooth like silk or synthetic material. Using my nose as a sense to read the cloth I smelt the cloth. The cloth dint quite smell good to me and had a smell of milk which gave me an idea that the cloth must have been treated with milk. By the feel and texture of the cloth I thought the cloth was a piece of cotton.

To know more about this cloth I got into the treatment of the cloth. Kalamkari is a craft of creating hand painted of block printed patterns on cotton textile. In Kalamkari the fabric used is pure cotton. Before getting used this cotton undergoes a lengthy process of resist dyeing. The cotton fabric is then dipped into a mixture of Amla and cow milk which gives the fabric its glossiness. After the craftsmen are done adding the patterns and motifs to it the cloth is dried and then washed. This cloth generally undergoes 20 washes.

The patterns or motifs were usually black and white in the olden days but now colours have also been introduced into this craft. The colour of the cloth still remains yellow ochre(cream).This craft was originally used only in temples to depict stories of Mahabharata and Ramayana but now used in commercial purposes as well. It's the creativity of the craftsmen's that bring this Kalamkari into saris, bed sheets, bags and many other accessories. It clearly has lost its traditional meaning of being made to depict holy stories to being used commercially and mass produced.