Of versatile hand block print tops, Odisha handlooms and larger- than-life handmade clay idols

An entire community of generations of artisans living and working in an enclave in Kolkata where they use clay to create magnificent likenesses of deities for Hindu celebrations…

Photos: Vincent Boyer (Say hi on instagram @vincetravelbook)

This post is as much about the clay-works-of- art-in-progress that I am surrounded by in the images as it is about the handcrafted fabrics featured in the photos.

The saree I am wearing is borrowed from my friend with an eagle eye for fabrics. I swear she can spot brilliant textiles buried under rubbish from kilometres away, it’s just one of her super powers. If you don’t believe me, check her instagram out and you’ll see what I mean.

This saree is actually a massive length of hand loomed Odisha dhoti fabric with the distinctive ‘phoda kumbha’ border, that the state is known for.

The top I am wearing here was made by my tailor back home ages ago, and I wear it A LOT with denims, sarees, as a swimsuit cover-up etcetera. It features hand block print on well-worn cotton that is all kinds of comforting. You can see it worn with denim shorts over two and a half years ago here.

If you are keen to read more about hand block print fabrics from India, I have previously published the first in a series of post about the various kinds of this type of surface ornamentation on textiles from different parts of the subcontinent, which you can find here.

The top and the saree were a match made in heaven for a sweltering afternoon in Calcutta, we walked around for hours amazed by the statues in all forms of production and to see multiple artists working together.

This entire area houses craftspeople who live and work in narrow intersecting lanes, that in spite of the lack of space do not feel claustrophobic.

Each of these stunning clay deities is usually crafted by a team of between three and five artisans, the process begins with a bamboo frame that is bound with bundles of straw to create a basic shape. Malleable clay is then applied on the contours of the structure by the expert craftspeople, moulding it on the frame with their bare hands, brushes and the chiyari – a bamboo sculpting tool.

Then begins the more complex task of creating the feet, hands and head with clay; once the whole frame has been layered, it is wiped with a cloth soaked with wet clay to prevent cracks once the statue dries out.

Once the clay form dries, the final painting begins, after an initial coat of base paint, the idol is decorated with an array of vibrant colours. The entire process reaches its artistic apex when it comes to the idol’s eyes ⁠— a ritual known as chokkhu daan (gifting of eyes).

So revered is the act of painting the eyes of a deity that the artisan will often ritually cleanse himself with water – and sometimes meditate – before doing so. The final step sees rope-like hair glued onto the idol, which is then clothed with various shimmering textiles.

Once completely dry, the clay Goddesses are dressed in beautiful sarees, their 10 arms decorated with abundant ornaments and faux jewelry

I found a statue of Durga in the second photo especially striking – the tiger she’s sitting on was so lifelike (a very close inspection was had). I have always marvelled at the intricate beauty of the idols during the various Bengali festivals honouring Goddesses and to see these works of art in progress was quite special.

Coming across such a wealth of arts and crafts knowledge just brings home the beauty and richness of culture in the Motherland, that we’re unfortunately fast losing to rampant consumerism.

Here’s hoping that these art forms flourish for centuries to come and the craftspeople are paid wages that befit their immense skill and knowledge.

Indigo block print lehenga in the winter

Another one in the long running series of dupattas that are converted into sarees and then made into lehengas …

Photos: Vincent Boyer (Say hi on instagram @vincetravelbook)

This lehenga (also known as gaghra or chaniya or just simply a gathered skirt) used to be three dupattas that I wore as a saree for ages before realising that the number of indigo block print sarees in my wardrobe was astounding. I re-homed a few of them with other saree-enthusiasts and decided to ask the boy to make this into a lehenga/ gaghra for my birthday.

I am wearing it here with a cropped merino wrap-around top, sneakers and was carrying a wool coat to wear over it in case the temperatures dipped further. You can view more photos of this lehenga in its previous avatar as a saree in a previous post from over two years ago here.

I do tend to wear full-length gathered skirts quite a bit in my everyday outfits and definitely could do with an indigo piece. Being the crazy plant lady I am, I also quite liked the dabu printed motifs on this particular length of fabric.

Dabu printing is an elaborate traditionally unique way of dyeing and printing by which exceptional motifs are created on handwoven and machine made fabrics. The recently declared Unesco world heritage site – Jaipur, is surrounded by a number of traditional villages that comprise of predominantly block print artisanal communities.

By taking advantage of the fine desert sand of Rajasthan, generations of craftspeople have been able to create this mud-resist known as ‘dabu’.

A cold-water resist, dabu is particularly effective for blocking out areas during an indigo bath. The character of dabu and the wooden blocks used to apply it, go together to create the distinctive patterns known as dabu prints.

Block prints like these are done by instinct and don’t involve much mechanical interference and they display obvious signs of the human hand, imperfections that are a part of the timeless beauty of the craft.

What gets me completely enamoured with these fabrics is the knowledge that it involves generations of a community, a heritage built around the craft, where artisans often across religions, castes and tribes form a shared history.

I really love wearing these prints on everything from pants to dresses to sarees to skirts to work-shirts to singlets and what have you. One of my favourite items of clothing though is the traditional cotton gaghras or chaiyas that are every day wear for many nomadic tribes people in Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat. I love wearing them throughout the year and believe that they are the most fun as winter-wear.

Some of the ways I plan to wear this lehenga/ gaghra in the winter are listed below and I am always looking to add to this list:

1. Paired with a beanie, sweatshirt and chunky boots for when the temperatures hit single digits.
2. Worn with a merino base layer, a thick embroidered choli over it and converse hi-tops.
3. With a chunky cable-knit sweater, an over-size denim jacket and knee-length boots.
4. With a lambswool turtle-neck, a leather jacket and double sole sneakers.
5. With a basic merino sweater, a dupatta and a Kutchi embroidered shawl.
6. With a tight cashmere body suit and an angrakha or front open anarkali over it.
7. With a silk and wool fitted sweater, a trench coat and heeled boots.
8. With a merino base layer top plus leggings, a peplum top and fleece-lined booties.
9. As a dress, I just tie the gaghra over the bosom, wear a heavy duster cardigan over it and tall boots under.

What are your favourite ways to upcycle sarees and what is your preferred way to style a lehenga/ gaghra as the temperatures drop?

If you are keen to read about similar topics, I have previously published the first in a series of post about the various kinds of hand block printed fabrics from different parts of India, which you can find here, I have also posted another block-print-dupattas-turned saree-turned-lehenga and various ways of styling it in the warmer months here and here is a post from few years ago in a bandhani lehenga with a grey sweater.

 

Different styles of Indian hand block prints

Manual block printing on textiles using wooden blocks has been an artisanal craft practiced in India for centuries …

Photos: Vincent Boyer (Say hi on instagram @vincetravelbook)

Hand-block printing is one of the oldest and currently among the most popular forms of ornamentation on textile surfaces.

Based on available historical texts it is believed that printing designs onto fabric most likely originated in China about 4,500 years ago but it is on the Indian subcontinent where hand-blocked fabric reached its highest visual articulation.

Indian artisans of yore possessed unparalleled expertise in the secrets of natural plant dyes, particularly with mordants which are metallic salts that both create color and allow it to adhere to fabric.

Between outside influences from Persia and elsewhere, the impact of Mughal invasion and the diversity of the subcontinent’s own indigenous communities and tribes, India has one of the most spectacular pattern vocabularies on this planet.

The saree I am wearing the the photos features the Jawariya Dana, a tribal print from Tarapur, a village in Neemuch district in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It has a beautiful combination of alizarin hand block printing on the body and Dabu resist techniques on the border and parts of the pallu, displayed on mul cotton fabric.

Jawariya Dana is just one of the many styles of hand block printing from India and I thought I’d list a few of the types I wear quite often over a couple of posts here on Pleats n Pallu.

Jawaria Dana is colloquial speak for ‘jowar ka dana’ (a grain of sorghum or cereal grass), it is a traditional design term used for the block prints made on the odhanis (scarves) of women from the Bhils, Jats , Bhilals and other tribes of Rajasthan and MP.

They usually feature a red or pink (pink for the bride in kachcha colour, the colour is supposed to bleed and colour the bride pink) with small dots allover which are the size of grain of jowar.

Traditionally the danas would be made using the Indian tie and dye technique called bandhani however, these block printed ones are more common these days. A few local artisans in the area still follow the traditional bandhani technique to decorate odhanis and lugdas (body cloth).

These are sarees hand block printed and alizarin dyed in black and red . Blocks used are same as what the printers use for printing for the tribals so there would be misprints or defects as well.

Nandana is another elaborate style of manual block print practiced by the local Chippa community in Tarapur. It is a time-consuming, labor-intensive process involving about 16 steps to get to the final design.

Traditionally these prints decorate rough thick fabrics used for making ghagras (gathered skirts) for the women of tribal communities in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. These prints have a limited number of block patterns, mostly flowers and fruits that are printed in the same manner all over the fabric.

I believe there are just five designs ranging from small buti to big buta known as mirch, champakali, dholamaru, amba and salaam are the signature motifs for these prints. You can see a saree featuring this print on a previous blog post here.

Dabu is a unique fabric art-form created by a mud resist process using wood blocks in the Bagru village of the western Indian state, Rajasthan. In this, a design is sketched onto the background cloth which is covered with wet clay sprinkled saw dust.

The saw dust clings to the textile as the clay dries and then the entire cloth is dyed in select colors. The parts with the clay and sawdust mixture do not catch the dye and remain colourless. The fabric is washed post dyeing and drying and may be dyed again in a lighter shade to cover the patterned area.

Traditionally this form of printing was environmentally non-toxic because it used no harmful or synthetic dyes.

You can see sarees featuring this print on sarees in previous blog posts here and here, on dress and shirts here, here and here.

The Bagru style of hand block printing is eponymously named after the village it has originated from, which is a short drive from Jaipur.

In order to created these prints an artisan first stamps the background block (locally known as gudh), followed by an outline block (the rekh) and finally the datta are filler blocks which complete the design.

On average, a printer uses a minimum of four or five blocks to etch one motif on a length of hand printed cloth.

It sometimes takes a couple of days just to carve and finish a single block, as the selection and seasoning of local woods is an elaborate process, specific to each pattern.

In Bagru, carvers often use woods like sagwaan (teak), sheesham (Indian rosewood), or rohida (desert teak or marwar teak) when constructing blocks. You can check out this print in an older post here.

There are many, many more types of manual block printing on fabric from Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu etcetera that I will elaborate on, in another blog post.