Kalamkari

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Kalamkari or Qalamkari is a type of hand-painted or block-printed cotton textile, produced in various places in India. The word derives from the Persian words qalam (pen) and kari (workmanship). There are two distinctive styles of kalamkari art in India - one, the 'Srikalahasti' style and the other, the Machalipatnam style of art. The Srikalahasti style of Kalamkari, wherein the "kalam" or pen is used for free hand drawing of the subject, and filling in the colours is entirely hand worked. This style flowered around temples and their patronage, and so had an almost religious identity - scrolls, temple hangings, chariot banners and the like depicted deities and scenes taken from great epics - Ramayana. Mahabarata, Puranas and mythological classics. This style owes its present status to Smt. Kamaladevi Chattopadhayay who popularised the art as the first Chairperson of All India Handicrafts Board. Only natural dyes are used in Kalamkari and involves seventeen painstaking steps. The Jonnalgadda family of Srikalahasti is the torch bearer of carrying this art form through out the world. The J.J School of Art, Bombay is one such beneficiary. They are presently experimenting this art form on Silk Ikat ie., tie and dye textiles popular in Pochampalli, Andhra Pradesh.

The production process is long and laborious, using vegetable dyes and mordants.

Today, qalamkari is also produced in Iran.

[edit] See also

• Thangka