First printing

After the raw fabric is treated with Myrobalun and dried now its ready for first
printing.

So many new techniques have been practiced now. Blocks are used to print
mordant uniformly. Application of indigo dye has been mostly reduced and use of
Kalam for wax resists is absent from the present processes.

Seraver (Heyotis Umbellata) and Chay (Oldenlandia Umbellata) are being replaced
by Alizarin which were earlier used for madder. But use of mordant for black
outlining remains the same. Indigo was preferred for painting large areas in black
earlier whereas these days iron acetate is being used for this even though it is
known for its corrosive properties.

Iron & Alum Mordants

Iron strips (usually the kind used for crafting) are collected along with paddy husk.
Iron strips and paddy husk are laid in the alternative layers and burned in pots. The
fire is set using charcoal and cow dung cakes. This is left to smolder entire night.
Next morning iron strips are washed and scrubbed with stone to remove the rust.
Generally, at other places of Kalamkari like Kalahasthi rusted iron fillings are
used.

The reason behind de-rusting the iron fillings at Machilipatnam is not very clear.
But it was explained as corrosive qualities of iron acetate might be higher with
rusted iron fillings. De-rusting of iron fillings is usually done by women. The
proportions of the ingredients used are

36 liters – Salt water

 12kg – Jaggery

21kg – Iron strips

The jaggery used here is very low grade. Now a barrel shaped brass pot is taken
and cleaned strips and solution of salt water are added into it. The pot is airtight.
Jaggery solution ferments and dissolves iron strips.

This process takes 21 to 24 days. They take extreme care of this pot. Women are
not allowed to touch this pot. It is believed that if proper care is not taken or if
women who are menstruating touches the pot the mordant is not formed and is
useless. They treat the pot equal to God and even they conduct puja for successful
conclusion. This iron mordant is natively called as “Kasam”.

Alum mordant is called as “Karam”. To make this, dry alum crystals are crushed to
1
make powder. Water is added to this powder. For every 3 2 kg alum powder 4liters

of water are added. Now the liquid is boiled by stirring occasionally till it is
reduced to half the quantity. Intensity of red colour depends on the purity of alum
crystals. Contact of solution with any form of iron will make the colour darker.
Due to his reason utensils made of iron are not used in this procedure.

Printing of Mordants

Printing is done on a wooden table generally with an elevation of 1 foot from the
ground. The table is covered by gunny cloth and a damp cloth is spread on it.
Damp cloth is used to prevent spillage of cloth during printing. The fabric which
needs to be printed is spread on the damp cloth and stretched.
Now mordant is added to a tray which is called printing pad. Printing pad is a
rectangular tray made up of deodar or teak wood. A frame of bamboo wood is
made to fit the tray with intercuts between them to control the flow of mordant.
Sponge is surmounted by a piece of cloth and fir onto it. If a fine fabric must be
printed additional layers of fabrics are added to the required delicacy of the design.

Mordant is added to printing pad time to time with a brass mug, the mordant lies
under the bamboo frame and the sponge above it absorbs the mordant in lesser
quantity.

Block is pressed into printing pad a then pressed on to fabric. Lot of precision and
skill is required to get fineness in block printing like no repetitions or overlapping
of block, even application of pressure etc.

Printing of iron mordant is done before printing alum mordant. The Kasam and
Karam are mixed with gum to thicken the mordant. The thickening of the mordant
depends on quality of fabric. Finer the fabric thicker the agent, Gum do not play
any role in color formation. Earlier Arabic gum extracted from locally grown
plants known as “Thumma Jiguru” was used. Now it has been replaced with
synthetic gum powder, which is white in color.

The reason behind using Myroabalm and iron mordant is that the tannin in
Myrobalam reacts with the iron acetate to form black colour. If right proportion of
ingredients ae not used the colour do not come black. To check the depth of colour
samples pieces are made. If the jaggery proportion goes wrong colour comes out
towards red.

Alum solution is colorless so fugitive colour is added to solution so that outlines

are visible. Olden days sappan wood was used but now-a-days Vermilion
(Sindoor) is being used. Depending on the depth of shade required higher
concentration of Alum solution is used.

Different combinations of iron and mordants are used to form colours from
chocolate to violet. After the first printing the fabric is let to dry for 2 to 3 days,
and the blocks are washed with the cold water after use.

Washing & Degumming

After the fabric is dried completely degumming has to be done delicately. Care
must be taken so that the outlines do not smudge during the process. Fabrics are
taken to flow of water for 2 – 3 hours early in the morning. The fabric needs to be
stretched out evenly. If any residue of gum is left on the fabric that would affect
the clarity of the fabric.

After the fabric is soaked for 2 – 3 hours, any residue of gum would be removed by
beating vigorously on stones on the riverbed and fabric is dried in the sun.

Boiling

Alizarin is dissolved in cold water, water in large pot is boiled on brick fire. This
solution of Alizarin is added to the pot of boiling water and the mixture is stirred
with wooden rod. Now the dried fabric with mordant is submerged completely into
it from all sided and boiled for 1 hour.
Memecylon edule known as “Jajaku” in native language is added to boiling water
to prevent colour leaks. After boiling the colour forms and fabric is dried in the
sun. During this process red colour is formed and iron mordant is fixed to fabric.