This post moves away from the peaceful, rural villages of previous craft profiles, onto the bustling, polluted and noisy city of Ahmedabad. This city has been named the ‘Manchester of the East’ because of its rich and ancient history of textile production. The city is well-known for its block printing, and was the home of the trade of saudigiri printed textiles for the Thai market which began about two hundred years ago, reached its peak at the turn of the century, but declined during the Second World War. The saudigiri motifs share more similarities to those of the malir, jimhardi and haidharo block prints for the skirts of women in…
-
-
Kanga – communicating cloths
A recent exhibition at the British museum displayed and documented a rich Africa textile tradition. In a previous blog post, I wrote about an exhibition and symposium entitled ‘Social Fabric‘ in which fabric was used as a metaphor for society, and often a symbol of colonial power. On the other hand, the recent exhibition at the British Museum – Social Fabric: African textiles today displays cloths that directly and graphically express the wearer’s political, social, religious, sexual and emotional views and concerns. The textiles on display were kangas – textiles I recognised but knew very little about. I immediately remembered a picture I had cut out of the Guardian, of Masai…
-
A beginner’s guide to block printing… at home or in the studio
I said at the end of my post about the process of Ajrakh block printing that I would write a post on a more accessible process of block printing that you can follow in your own home, on a smaller scale and when you don’t need endless hours of sun or litres of water. I’m sorry it has taken so long, but here is my guide to simple fabric block printing using wooden blocks and silk or cotton, using both natural dyes and chemical fabric paints. Materials needed: A few bowls or trays Sponges (washing up sponges or ones used for car washing will do) Table for printing Carpet underlay…
-
Ancient architecture and beautiful block prints in Delhi and Jaipur
We arrived in Delhi to cold, fog and smog. There was an eerie atmosphere in which you couldn’t see far beyond your immediate surroundings. The dramatic thunderstorm we awoke to this morning was even more strange for the this time of year. Although the weather was unexpectedly cold, we arrived to a very warm welcome. On arriving at the DIA university in Delhi we were welcomed with tilaka on our foreheads and gifts of roses. We felt like royalty! We were later told that guests in India are treated as if they are gods – this was very evident during our stay. In Delhi we visited Mughal architectural sites the…
