The Killing of River Luni

As published in Tehelka Magazine, Volume 9 Issue 35, Dated August 27, 2012. Reports Tehelka jouranist Prakhar Jain

A Rs 5,000 crore textile industry is leaching a desert river in Marwar with chemicals, even as the ground water for villagers plummets.

 

The color of the river Luni has turned Blue due to contamination that is mostly Indigo dye

In the desert town of Balotra, around 110 km from Jodhpur in Rajasthan, the dry bed of river Luni looks like a bluish-green carpet that stretches beyond the horizon. However, the greenery is not because of vegetation or trees, it is caused by the dyes and chemicals that are discharged from the textile-processing hub located in the region.

 

The town of Balotra, In Rajasthan’s Barmer district, is known for its textile industry that is engaged in processing the fabric used in making gowns, petticoats and lining material for thin clothes. The units supply textiles across India and to many west-African and neighbouring countries of India. The industry processes more than 1,800 million metres of cloth every year. But over the past few years, the town is gaining notoriety for the coloured riverbed of Luni.
According to the people of the town, the river last flowed with natural rainwater in the 1990s. After that, because of successive droughts, it has never seen any water apart from the effluents discharged in it by the textile units of the town.

River Luni originates in the Pushkar valley of the Aravalli Range, near Ajmer, where it is known as Sagarmati. It then flows southwest, to the Marwar region, entering a patch of desert, before disappearing into the marshes of the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat.

 

Bleeding chemistry (L to R) A worker pours dye for printing; laying out the dyed fabric to dry; water, treated in the CETPS, is still stained with dye

Elders of Balotra remember farmers growing crops on the banks of the river using tube-wells. Narayan Chelaji (44), a farmer, says, “We used to grow wheat and bajra in our farms, but the water level has gone down, from 20 ft in the past to more than 200 ft. Now, we are dependent on the seasonal rains for whatever little we want to cultivate. Else, nothing grows here.”

Continue reading…

Heaven for Crafters and Art Lovers – Dakshinachitra

Dakshinachitra is one of those must see places that you can’t afford to miss if you are on a trip to South India. Situated in the town of Muttukadu, Dakshinchitra is about one hour drive from south of Chennai and about two hours drive from north of Pondicherry. Although there is nothing much to see and visit in Muttukadu but Dakshinchitra makes it special. If you plan your trip well, you can actually get a chance to participate in an interesting craft workshop or meet some great artists during your visit to Dakshinchitra.

In the month of August 2013, Vastra Utsav (textile festival) was organised by the friends of Dakshinchitra. Many artisans participated and sold their creations during this festival. The Vastra Utsav witnessed good gathering from Indian and international art lovers.

Performing arts – folk dances and musicals, puppetry 

Virudhu 2013 – permormance by Lakshmanan Peruvannan

A closeup shot of the artist

Dance performance by the local tribes on the occasion of Onam (South Indian New Year) The festival Onam is celebrated to thank god for another year of good crops, happy life and good luck for everyone.

Puppetry workshop by Master Puppeteer – Bhaskar Kogga Kamath

Puppetry workshop by Master Puppeteer – Bhaskar Kogga Kamath

Painting exhibitions are organised very often

An instructor at Sanjhi Paper art workshop at Dakshinchitra

A peacock made using Sanjhi paper art

Visit Dakshinchitra website: http://www.dakshinachitra.net/

Image credits: Dakshinchitra facebook page

Maniharon ka Raasta : Jaipur, India

This article is a re-blog of post that appeared on http://www.gaatha.com

Who will buy these delicate, bright
Rainbow-tinted circles of light?
Lustrous tokens of radiant lives,
For happy daughters and happy wives.

These lyrics penned by the nightingale of India, Sarojini Naidu echo the sentiments that secretly unite womankind all over. What appears to the uninformed as an accessory that changes with changing trends, is actually a witness to a girl’s journey till she embraces womanhood. As a toddler her little wrists were adorned with gold and silver bangles, which over her growing years turned into charms and junk….and suddenly became auspicious companions when she stepped across the threshold into blissful matrimony as a young bride. The word bangle is derived from Hindi word ‘bungri’ meaning glass. Seashell, copper, bronze, gold, agate, chalcedony have been used to make bangles through centuries. But the art of making lac bangles at the ‘Maniharon ka Raasta’ in Jaipur is a peculiar flair, where through the length of the lane one can let his or her senses indulge in a visual canvas of colors and the music of jingling bangles, which punctuates the endless chatter of women who flood the many shops.

Lac bangle making is an art, as old as the establishment of Jaipur city. The king of Amer summoned the most initial craftsmen from the Manoharpur district of Uttar Pradesh. Once the capital city was instituted, these Manihar craftsmen also shifted their vocational base from Amer to Jaipur. The lane is dotted with countless bangle selling shops mostly managed by the muslim Manihari women while their men are away at the kilns and furnaces melting and preparing the raw-material.

The antiquity of this natural resin goes as back as the vedas, where the Laksha taru (or Palas) in Sanskrit, or the Lac tree has been mentioned. In the Atharva Veda, there is a small chapter devoted to the description of Lac insect, its habits and usefulness. The story of the notorious Lac palace built by the Kauravas in a plot to eliminate the Pandavas, in an episode from the 3000-year-old Mahabharata epic sheds more light on the history of this material.

Crimson red, plant sucking, tiny insects such as Laccifer lacca, Carteria lacca and Tachardia lacca colonize the branches of selected species of host trees and secrete a natural scarlet resin known as Lac. Later the different layers of resin residue on the coated branches of the host trees are scraped off as long sticks known as sticklac, crushed, sieved and washed several times to remove impurities till it shows up in natural red color. This Lac, acquired from Balrampur in Uttar Pradesh is further heated to settle down the impurities and get the best of it floating on the surface. To this molten Lac, which is originally brick red in color, the bangle makers further add wax (beroza) to increase the cohesiveness, titanium (Ghea pathar) to increase the volume and coloring agents. Generally the quantity of talc varies from 5% to 95% and is highly instrumental in determining the quality of the Lac bangles.

The process of obtaining Lac is carried out in large mud kilns. Semisolid Lac is placed on the hot metal plate coated with a layer of oil, which prevents it from sticking to the plate. This semisolid dough is then rolled into poles, and once dry these poles are sent away to the women who run the shops within the city. The ladies generally manage with a singular stove with a metal plate on top and simple hand made wooden batons and tweezers from within the shop. Roller pins are used to flatten the length of the solid poles and draw sheets out of the chunk. Slender strips are then creased and cropped out of the flat sheet of lacquer and rolled into a bangle like shape.

The dimensions of these bangles are adjusted by mild heating on the stove and gentle molding over wooden batons of varying diameters. The beauty of these bangles emerges from the fact that the manihari women create custom made accessories for their clientele by adjusting the bangle to the desired size and ornamenting them with the preferred beads, stones, crystals and other embellishments fancied by the she patrons visiting the store. It is interesting to observe the Lac bangles once broken, can easily be rejoined by mild heating and tender fabrication over the wooden mould. Since repeated heating eliminates moisture and makes lacquer brittle, the process of breaking and rejoining has a limit of 8 to 10 times only.

The Rajasthani rituals are known to require specific traditional ornamentations and different festivals seek different ensembles. Hence the sale of these bangles surges during local celebrations such as teej, the marwari festival of gangaur, karva chauth, holi, weddings and special ceremonies for the mothers-to-be. In fact, each celebration can be identified with a distinct style of bangle design. For instance, a wedding in the family calls for the “gulali choodha” or the red colored bangle or the “hare bandon ka choodha”, the green colored bangle. Pink colored bangles are worn exclusively during holi. Besides bangles, rings, toe rings (bichchua), anklets (payal), nose rings, neck pieces, Bala, Bajuband, Rakhi, Gajra, Gokhru, Timaniyan and ‘maathe ka tika’ make prized selections for the visiting female clientele.

Deforestation has immensely affected the Lac reserves of our country resulting in escalation of the raw material cost. But little do people realize this fact and continue to expect their lacquer ware at ancient prices. A mute witness to this change are the statistics which reveal that the number of furnaces for Lac processing have reduced to 200-250, from a staggering 1500 that existed twenty-five years ago. The odd circumstances have been an important reason for the craftsmen to shift to alternate vocations.

Otherwise a government schoolteacher, Takhyyoul Sultana, lets her warm and entertaining self out, as she welcomes the chattering overtones of myriad of women in her bangle mart. Here ladies from all walks of life spend endless hours choosing their preferred accessory from the plethora of options, discussing daily narratives over numerous cups of tea and eventually bonding over bangles. It is evident that from avenues like these, emerges a scent of social culture that quietly maneuvers along these busy lanes to get mixed with other local flavors only to get absorbed by our collective memory.

Originally appeared on: www.gaatha.com 

Block Print Fabrics – Kalamkari Cotton

Introduction-

Kalamkari is the earliest and one of the most complex techniques of fabric printing using vegetable dyes and minerals.

According to Wikipedia, Kalamkari or Qalamkari is a type of hand-painted or block-printed cotton textile, produced in parts of India. The word is derived from the Persian words kalam (pen) and kari (craftmanship), meaning drawing with a pen. The craft made at Pedana near by Machilipatnam in Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh, evolved with patronage of the Mughals and the Golconda sultanate. The art has certainly received centuries of appreciation and patronage from people around the world. According to some sources the name Kalamkari was most likely derived from the trade relationships between Persian and Indian merchants as early as 10^th century CE.  Portuguese merchants called this kind of fabric printing “Pintado”. The Dutch called it “Sitz” and the British found it easy to call this textile printing technique “Chintz”. The name Kalamkari is however universally accepted and enjoyed by the fabric lovers since many decades.

Motifs and Inspiration-

Kalamkari in India is native of Sri Kalahasthi village in Andhra Pradesh, India.  Adopted by other Indian states such as Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan, motifs and techniques were evolved based on use and need.

Andhra Kalamkari Patterns-

Andhra Kalamkari takes its inspiration from the historical architecture such as temples, forts and palaces. The motifs include animals and birds like Lion, Peacock, Elephant and Indian gods and goddesses.

Hand painted Kalamkari – work in process
Image source: indianmuslimobserver.com

Kalamkari – Motif outliningImage source: gujaratkalamkari.blogspot.in

Gujarat and Other Indian Kalamkari Patterns-

Gujarat Kalamkari motifs are inspired by the gods and goddesses such as – sri Jagannath, lord Krishna, and lord Ganesha , goddesses Saraswati, goddesses Laxmi and also the peacock and elephants. Modern motifs include floral patterns, tree of life, lord Buddha etc. Other detailed patterns include story telling via mythological characters such as Krishna- Arjun from Mahabharata; lord Vishnu and the Crocodile from Vishnusahastranam among other characters from Hindu mythology.

Krishna-Arjuna Samvaad – story telling from Mahabharata
Image source- rusticjewels.wordpress.com

Tree of Life – Hand painted Kalamkari Motif from Gujarat, India
Image source: rusticjewels.wordpress.com

Complex Techniques of Textile manufacturing-

Kalamkari printing includes multiple steps of dying the fabric with natural vegetable dyes. The fabric that is used to make Kalamkari patterns is 100% cotton and its preparation is fully organic. Usually cotton or pure silk fabric is a preferred choice for making Kalamkari patterns.

The organic cotton fabric commonly known as “Gadda” is treated in myrobalan.

Steps-

• The traditional method includes treating the fabric in cow dung and bleach. A solution is made using buffalo milk and cow dung and the fabric is dipped into this solution for long hours. The fabric is then stirred multiple times at regular intervals to give it a uniform color.
• After treating the fabric for first time, the fabric is washed in the cement tanks or ponds in normal water.
• The fabric is then treated in Myrobalan and water solution to remove the buffalo milk odor. This step can be skipped but it is preferred to treat the fabric in Myrobalan because the buffalo milk odor is hard to get rid of otherwise.
• The fabric is again washed under running water – preferably in a pond or a river.
• The fabric is again treated in boiling dye solution (preferably obtained from bark of trees)
• Dip the fabric in alum water to fix the color.
• Drying and ironing

Note- Please read our previous post on the preparation of vegetable dyes and colors:

Vegetable Dyes and Colors – Manufacturing Process and Use

Buy Indian Kalamkari prints – Organic cotton fabric on http://www.desicraftshop.com

Vegetable Dyes and Colors – Manufacturing Process and Use

In today’s world where we are struggling with issues like environmental pollution, fear of chemical hazards, threatening effects of global warming vegetable dyes and colors are gaining their popularity for they are pure and organic and they have absolutely no side effects on us or the environment.

Many people wonder why vegetable dyed fabrics and other items are more beautiful, popular and costlier than the regular products available in the market today.  The reason is that it takes long time and great effort to prepare vegetable dyes. All vegetable colors are made using minerals, leaves, flowers and bark of various trees. Most common among them are:

Red 

a solution of alum and tamarind seed powder is used to make red or rust color. Tamarind seed powder is boiled till it mixes well with the water and then it is left in the fiber or plastic vessles to cool down and come back to the normal temperature. The solution is then filtered using fine weave mulmul cloth (muslin) to avoide any particles and dust that may leave the color unusable. Less viscous solution is made to obtain deep red color while using the solution with high viscosity will give Rust color on the motif. If the printer has to make a very fine printing, he would prefer a rather thick solution as thin solution tend to drip and it may spoil the whole motif. Alum works as the color fixer for the solution.

Black

Iron ore is used to make the black dye. The ore is powdered and boiled to make a solution. Process of cooling and filtering is involved while making all vegetable dyes. When the dye is ready, it is directly  applied onto the pattern using a pen or a wooden block.

Violet 

Natural Indigo crystals are powdered and boiled to make a solution. The outcome of the color totally depends on the amount of the Indigo use while making the solution. It also depends on the viscocity of the solution. If one is making mauve color, one should use Indigo in lesser amount. ProfessionalDye makers weigh their contents before making the dye. It helps them obtaining exactly same color as they used for printing last time.

Yellow  

Turmeric and Harad is used to make Yellow, Mustard, Lemon Yellow and other tints and shades of Yellow. In olden days, safron was used to make yellow and Orange colors, now a days due to limited availability and high price, dyers prefer turmeric over the safron.

Orange / Red  

Flower from the tree of Palash (scientific name Butea monosperma) is used to make vegetable dye color. In India, Palash flower is also used for making colors for playing Holi (a festival in north India).

The Process

Obtaining colors from flowers is a long and tiring process. It takes from days to weeks to prepare good color in significant amount. To make dyes from flowers, the flowers are picked and petals are separated from rest of the flower, now the petals are left in hot (read warm) water(not boiling).

Flower petals are soaked in a bucket full of water before making color

The petals then start releasing the color and you can say so when you see the color of the water in the bucket changing.This is the right time to take the petals out for grinding.

Selective collection of flower petals for making vegetable color

Wet petals are finely ground and left in the shade for drying. This ground paste is not kept directly under the sun as harsh sun can take away the color of the paste leaving the useless, colorless chips of the dried paste behind.When the paste is dried, another round grinding is required.

The wet petals are then crushed finely and dried under shade before following another round of grinding

The powder is then filtered using a fine muslin cloth. It gives the finest powder color. Rest of the powder which still has big and small pieces in it, is grounded until it turns into fine powder. Now the powder color is ready, it is used as a solution with alum for printing fabrics, as and when required.

Kids in an Indian NGO “KarmMarg” are preparing vegetable colors for playing Holi

Which flower is used to obtain what color – 

– Red Rose for Red, Pink Fuchsia and magenta

– Palaash for Red, Orange, Yellow

– Hibiscus for Red, Rust

– Bark of Hibiscus tree for Brown, Beige and Rust

– Lavender and Indigo for Blue, Mauve, Purple and Indigo

…and many other colors are made using different combinations!

Image credits – Delhi based NGO KarmMarg

Fabric arrangement: turning a traditional style Indian home into a fabric shop

Staircase Decoration at a Fabric Manufacturing Unit

We noticed this beautiful wall decoration at a fabric manufacturing unit. The company has square fabric pieces framed nicely arranged on the wall of staircases. All these frames display fabrics from different parts of India and include Banaras Pure Silk, Chanderi from Madhya Pradesh, Jacquard from Delhi and Cotton Block Prints from Jaipur.

India Fashion Week: Autumn Winter 2013 Wrap Up

India Fashion Week – Autumn Winter 2013, which was sponsored by Wills Life Style, concluded on 17th March 2012. IFW is India’s biggest fashion event which gives a convergence platform to India’s budding and established fashion designers. The event started on 13th March and ended on 17th March 2013. Nearly 100 fashion designers participated and showcased their work During the IFW-the holy Hajj for India’s fashion fiestas. A rather large profile of the participant designers can be found here. Click here to get the detailed schedule of five days long Wills Life Style India Fashion Week.

While new designers like Pankaj and Nidhi, Komal Sood, Anju Modi displayed their talent on the ramp, big names such as Tarun Tahilyani, Manish Malhotra and Wendell Rodricks launched their new line of collection during the show.

Here are the glimpses of the five days long India Fashion Week event.

Tarun Tahilyani’s new work. The main markets the label caters to are India and Middle East.His SS 13 collection is subtler, pastel colours featuring Indian embroideries like chikan, appliqué and dori work.

Surily studied at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles. Her SS 13 collection is titled ‘Fever’ and is edgy, sexy, and strong. With bursts of neons and electric shades of yellows, pinks, and blues, Fever is all set to get the temperatures soaring with a playful mix of silhouettes ranging from playsuits, asymmetrical dresses, interesting drapes along with the leggy mini-dresses and skirts.

Vineet Bahl’s label is based on the design philosophy of ‘profundity in simplicity’. His main markets are USA, the Middle East and Japan and India.

Manish Malhotra’s new range Displaying Phulkari – hand embroidery work from Punjab

And he rocks the ramp with Divas

Image and content credits: http://www.willslifestyleindiafashionweek.com and Facebook.com

Desi is in again – Vogue India features the work of top fashion designers – Kanchipuram sari rules the fashion 2013

This post is reblogged as seen on the India Fashion Journal

Well if there’s another reason to love Ms.Tewari this is it. The Project Renaissance initiative led by Bandana for Vogue India involved selecting the country’s finest handcrafted textiles and inviting leading international designers to- in her words ‘to mould them into something inspiring, something momentous. What you see is a sublime tribute to the historical, social and mythical magic of the Indian warp and weft.’

The results as you can see below are just beautiful and have importantly benefited both parties. Just as Hermes launched its limited edition saris and Gucci’s ‘Made for India’ collection, Project Renaissance has given these international brands an opportunity to engage with the Indian consumer in a more personal manner as well as enabled the welcome promotion of traditional Indian fabrics.

Burberry for Maheshwari silk

“I wanted to take our iconic trench coat and play with its unique identity. Like the trench, the Maheshwari fabric has an incredibly rich history and heritage, which I find truly inspiring.”

—Christopher Bailey, chief creative officer

Maheshwari silks are known for their distinctive geometric motifs, stripes and checks which are derived from the beautiful carvings from the Maheshwar Fort. I found these images on the Cluster Shop India which shows images of weaves and where their patterns originate from.

Alberta Ferretti for Kanchipuram silk

“I reinterpreted this beautiful fabric to realise something different from the traditional sari— I wanted to show [its] versatility, richness and allure.”

—Alberta Ferretti

Kanchipuram in the Southern state of Tamil Nadu is commonly known as the Silk city. The famed silk sarees are known for their heavy texture and rich lustre which comes from its high denier threads and pure zari in a double warp and weft weave. Designs include suns, moons, chariots, peacock, lions, mangoes and coins. Below are some traditional examples.

Prabal Gurung for Benarasi Brocade

“The design and draping process was incredibly romantic and poetic- it stirred up emotions and nostalgia of my time spent (in India) “

–Prabal Gurung

Benares brocade from the Northern state of Uttar Pradesh is made of finely woven silk with intricate designs including paisleys, flowers and fauna motifs. Anita Dongre latest collection had some beautiful examples

DKNY for Bishnupur Baluchari silk

“The graphic red is so DKNY—vibrant, energised, colourful. It’s exciting to take something traditional and do something completely unexpected with it.”—

-Donna Karan, chief creative director

Bishnupur Baluchari silks are known for their detailed depictions of mythological and folk stories inspired by the temples of Bishnupur & Bankur of West Bengal. DKNY’s take like Burberry’s trench coat is a complete reinvention of a classic and are my fav’s from the project.

How to differentiate the real vintage Indian silk clothing from the fake ones!

Hello Crafters and Vintage lovers,

Now this post could be of great importance of you if you are vintage silk lover won’t hesitate to spend a few $ more just because you think what you are buying is Vintage.

We are from India and we know how few seller could really fake the vintage silk clothing. So, long tips cut short, here are few steps to make sure what you are buying is real vintage silk:

1. How to find out that a fabric / cloth piece is made of real silk : cut a small piece of fabric you want to test and burn it. If it smells similar as human hair smells after burning, it is real silk. It might melt like plastic if it has artificial Zari and Polyester silk yarn content in it. 

2. Why some Indian zari work in vintage silk clothing becomes dull and dark and faded: zari in vintage clothing used to fade and darken because real silver was used to make the zari thread. Now a days, it won’t fade or darken because artisans don’t use silver zari anymore mainly due to two reasons-

a). Higher costs of making the fabric

b). Need to polish it every time you want to wear it.

Chanderi silk fabric from India

 

3. How to test if the Banaras Sari that you have bought is pure silk with real silver zari: very easy. During the burn test, if the zari melts like plastic, it is no way pure silver zari. The clothing with real silver zari willl leave the silver traces in the ashes once the fabric is burnt.

Damask weaving brocade from India

 

4. The darkness test: another way to test the zari work of vintage clothing and Banaras sari fabric is to see the condition of the zari. If the zari is darkened and faded in some areas, it could be real silver (that means the fabric or clothing is vintage) Silver is a metal that reacts with the air present in the atmosphere and changes its color if left open for some time (like a day or two). After polishing, it comes back to it’s original shiny silver color.

Hope these tips will help you next time when you shop vintage clothing and sari fabrics!