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Kalamkari - The wonderful handpainted or block printed Textile

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Kalamkari  work is a type of hand-painted or block-printed cotton textile produced in Isfahan, Iran, and in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Its  name  originates from the Persian meaning, derived from the words kalam (Pen) and kari (Craftmanship), meaning drawing with a bamboo pen on silk or cotton fabrics. Only natural or vegetable dyes are used. This art form of hand painting was started sometimes in 3000 B.C in a small district of Andhra Pradesh but it only got recognition during the Mughal Era.  The whole process of  Kalamkari  undergoes 23 steps. This involves bleaching the   fabric, softening it, drying it in sun, preparing natural dyes, air drying and washing. The entire procedure is intricate and requires an eye for detail. The  colors used in Kalamkari  are exquisite earthy tones of reds, blues, greens, yellows and browns. Women are depicted in shades of yellow, gods in blue and demons in red and green. The  u...

The Opulent world of Brocades

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  Today, lets talk about my love for brocades, its origins, some techniques without using much technical jargon. These are very rich, royal and intricate fabrics that I must discuss and highlight some of their characterictics. I have designed Lengha's, Anarkali's, Choli's, Kurta/Pants combo suits with a Jackets in these fabulous rich colorful gorgeous fabrics for many clients. I will share some pics as references so you can visualize these fabrics on a person and share my enthusiasm for these beautiful fabrics. The  Brocade  is a heavy fabric interwoven  with a  richly,  decorative  raised design,  often made in coloured silks and with or without gold and silver threads.   These fabrics are mostly used for making expensive garments and sarees. Very often the satin ground weave is particularly used for garments fabrics. These fabrics are characterized by their jals which are normally made out of silk and tilla.  In the 16th to the early 1...

First An Introduction to my Passion

  As long as I can remember I have always loved the world of fabrics, clothing, design, color and textures since I was a young girl. So I decided to pursue my passion by going into Textile Designing in College in India and learnt the nuts and bolts of textiles, the types, its processes, the intricate weaving patterns and skillful printing techniques. It was a huge world and I couldnt learn all of the techniques, the hundreds of fabrics, textures from machine made to handmade textiles in one lifetime. But I decided to make this my career and learn all I could about this magical world of color,texture,weaving,printing, yarns,techniques, dyeing, all made with their own unique trademark skills.  I was very lucky to have visited hundreds of textiles mills in South India, watching how they employed various looms, yarns to weave into a unique pattern. It was a fascinating world,one that was handed down from one generation to the next with an inherent knowledge on how to cre...