Pen Kalamkari

There are two types of Kalamkari works, one from Pedana which is block printing and another one from Srikalahasthi which is a Pen Kalamkari.

Pen Kalamkari:

Pen kalamkari is pure hand work done by experts.  Obviously it takes longer time than block printing. So, the actual production of this type of kalamkari work is time consuming and there is lot of efforts goes into it.

Earlier this Kalamkari work was done on cotton fabrics. Now it is done on different type of sarees like cotton, cotton silk, tussar silks, Chanderi, Pattu sarees.

As first step, the cloth is dipped in milk and myrabalam.  After that the cloth will be boiled in water, before starting actual work.

By  this process the fabric absorbs the colors and retain them. The artist draw outlines with black color. They use bamboo stick to draw colors. This stick looks like a pen and thread is wrapped to it to retain the color. The black color is made with Jaggery and iron soaked together.

The complete process takes 17 painstaking steps to get the final product out.

Natural colors are used in this process.

The artists prepare colors on their own by using natural materials like Jaggery, iron, leaves of specific trees.

Each color preparation takes its own time.

The artists uses their skills to draw different designs  with free hand.

The pen kalamkari mostly comes with epics designs.