Image credit: Gaurang Shah
Kalamkari refers to an ancient technique of painting on fabric using a tamarind pen and natural dyes to create beautiful fabics.
Image Credit: Gaurang Shah
The Kalamkari art is based at Telangana and Andhra Pradesh that serve as the largest manufacturers of Kalamkari textiles in the country.
Image Credit: Getty
Kalamkari was born out of an art of story-telling where travelers would travel from village to village reciting stories from these canvases.
Image Credit: Getty
Popular motifs found on Kalamkari textiles are peacocks, flowers, animals and scenes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
Image Credit: Gaurang Shah
What makes Kalamkari extraordinary is that the most valuable fabrics have paintings that are first drawn free hand and subsequently painted on them.
Lumos Films/Youtube
The process of creating a fabric involves 23 steps that include bleaching and dyeing which increases the value of these beauties.
Image Credit: Gaurang Shah
Even though silks are seldom used, the most popular fabric to paint these fabrics are undoubtedly pure cotton.
Image Credit: Getty
Designer Gaurang Shah has painstakingly worked towards making Kalamkari part of high-fashion as well as incorporated fusion pieces with other textiles like Kanjeevarams.
Image Credit: Gaurang Shah
Image Credit: Gaurang Shah