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Kalamkari Essay

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Kalamkari the ancient Indian art of painting
Kalamkari refers to a method of painting natural dyes onto cotton or silk fabric with a bamboo pen or kalam. The name kalamkari translates as pen (kalam) work (kari) in Hindi/Urdu, and was most likely derived from trade relationships between Persian and Indian merchants as early as the 10th century CE. European merchants also had names for this type of fabric decoration: the Portugese called it pintado, the Dutch used the name sitz, and the British preferred chintz. The name kalamkari is used prominently today, and is synonymous with both painted and hand blockprinted textiles that incorporate natural vegetable/organically-derived dye stuffs. While there are many forms of kalamkari throughout …show more content…

The reservoir of the kalam is never allowed to dry. It is washed and dried thoroughly before storage.
CHARCOAL SKETCH
Most artists will sketch a charcoal outline on the prepared cloth before application of black dye (kasimi). Some artists use charred tamarind twigs to draw, while others use commercially manufactured charcoal or lead pencils.

The following steps are taken to prepare tamarind twigs (chinta boggo) for sketching: * Dried twigs that have fallen around the tree are gathered and broken to a length of 3-7 inches. * To char the twigs, a shallow circular pit is scooped out in dry soil and a heap of sand is kept besides the pit. * The dry twigs are piled up to a height of 2-3 inches above the ground level. Some newspaper is also placed among the twigs to facilitate burning. The twigs and paper is set on fire. * When the flame dies down, sand is thrown over the twigs, and they are set to cool in the pit for 3-4 hours. * This slow cooling makes the pencils tough. The ash coloured twigs are then unearthed, rolled between one?s fingers to remove greyish bark until black color is revealed. * The pencils so prepared can be stored until further use (do not remove bark before charring; else the twigs will turn to ash).

KASIMI (Black) Black ink/dye or kasimi is at the basis of all traditional kalamkari paintings; it is used to outline all figures,

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