He sits surrounded by what appears to be casually strewn packets of dried bark and fruit rind, bits of haldi pods, dried flower and petals, a few horse shoes and white powder, which we are told is made up of crushed tamarind seeds. Yet out of permutations and combinations of all these, Mahesh Kumar Chippa, the paramparik block printer, conjures up a whole palette of the colours of Nature for his hand block printed textiles: ‘harda' for the first base dyeing of the washed cloth, red from a mixture of alum and gum, black from mixing water soaked iron filings and black gum, a mixture of dried pomegranate and turmeric to create yellow etc.

Mahesh dips wooden block motifs ranging from traditional ‘amris,' ‘butties' and stylised flowers to contemporary geometries, circles and zigzags, into a dye box containing jute soaked in the dye. The hand block is then imprinted on the cloth with a firm pressing motion. And a textile embellishment story slowly begins to emerge. This is the famous Bagru hand block printing on textiles with rich, natural colours, a centuries-old craft featuring elaborate and richly coloured floral prints..............Click for more

Source Web Page: The Hindu