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Gujarat
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When I visited Gujarat, I dedicated a day for shopping to buy Kutch handicraft items, but not in the cities, but directly from the artisans in their own villages in Kutch! Bhuj is almost an overnight train journey from Ahmedabad. At Bhuj, we hired a car and went on a village-hopping to various Kutch handicraft villages all over Kutch (Kachchh) stopping at various places to visit in Kutch to experience the various Kutch handicrafts.
Each village here has a unique handicraft and we stopped at each village to see and understand the crafts as well as, of course, do some shopping!!!! All these crafts are traditional crafts that are being practised by the families for several generations!!!
My 1st stop was of course to meet Dr.Ismail Khatri, who makes block printed Ajrakh fabrics.
Authentic indian hospitality: I had met him earlier in Chennai and when I decided to visit Bhuj, I called him and he invited me to his home for breakfast as soon as we reach Bhuj! A super-heavy breakfast of authentic Ragi and Jowar Rotis with super thick homemade yoghurt from the milk of his own buffaloes! I hadn't tasted something like that ever before. It was so yummy, so filling and so authentic!!!
After enjoying his hospitality, I began to look into what I went there for - Ajrakh Printed fabric, one of the spectacular handicrafts of Kutch.
Why is ajrakh fabric called so? Ajrakh comes from the term 'aaj-rakh' - 'keep it for today', implying, everything used to get sold out in 1 day.
Ajrakh printing colours & process: The studio where the Ajrakh Printing process happens is large. Being a block printed fabric, the main tool here is, of course, the gorgeous wooden blocks. They are super adorable! Like most other block printed fabrics all over India, here too, a print can consist of multiple colours which mean there are multiple blocks that form the various parts of the design. There are guidelines on the blocks to help alignment of the various parts of the same design. The first step is block printing (after curing the fabric). The colours are all plant colours. The main fabric colour is blue from natural indigo, so there are indigo vats that are in huge containers where the fabrics are boiled to fix the colours. The next step is drying which is done by sun-drying. It is easy in this very hot region. The final step is washing There is a very innovative, flowing water set up to imitate a river's currents which is essential for the final washing of the printed fabrics.
My 2nd stop was to see the Tie-dye craft called Bandhej. I met Shri.Ali Mohammad Isha Khatri.
How is Bhuj Bandhej (Bandhni) fabric different? While tie-dye as it is, is not uncommon and is often done as a DIY by many, the intricacy of this bandhani work is just too good to be true! He has a needle-like attachment on his finger with which he pushes just a teeny-tiny bit of fabric up for tying!
Bhuj Bandhej process: The graph is plotted on the fabric to guide the tying process. The designs are symmetrical, meaning, the fabric is folded and then tieing is done. Then the needle-like attachment is used to pick the fabrics (2 or 4 layers of fabric depending on the design symmetry & fabric thickness) and a cotton thread is used to tie them off. A few twists over the fabric and then a knot finishes a tie. The thread isn't cut off there (unlike DIY projects) but carried over to the next tie. After completing the ties, the fabric is dyed. For multicoloured tie-dye patterns, the lightest colour is first dyed after tying the white spots. Then the process is repeated adding ties on the light coloured spots and dying the next darker colour. The process goes on till the darkest colour is dyed. Mostly, after drying, the fabric is stored as it is and the customer can open the knots themselves!
My 3rd stop was at Bhujodi and I met Shri. Chaman Siju here, who also I had met earlier in Chennai to witness Bhujodi weaving which is a Bhujodi handicraft by Vankar community, a beautiful, traditional Kutch embroidery handicraft, kutch weaving technique.
What is special about Bhujodi weaving? Bhujodi fabrics - are they embroidered or woven? It is a magical space in between!!! The motifs are made manually, 'while' weaving, and not on a fabric! It is a bit like dobby, but not really dobby... Bhujodi weaving is a handloom weaving technique. Between the weft insertions, a tiny shuttle with a different coloured yarn is used to make little motifs by manually counting the threads.
It's just beautiful! The various families who practice Bhujodi Weaving here each do fabrics of different weights - from superfine fabrics for clothing to shawls to super thick fabrics for rugs.
What is the speciality of jhura (zura) copper-plated bells? The speciality of the Jhura (Zura) copper-coated bells is that they are not made with a mould or fire, but by beating strips of metal to the desired shape and interlocking the pieces!!! It is quite fascinating to watch the craftspersons creating the bells. The Jhura (Zura) bells are made of iron metal and then they are baked with copper, zinc and brass and then it is further sunned, after which the bells get their gorgeous golden, copper colour!
How were jhura (zura) bells traditionally used? Today, they range from tiny bells for accessories to huge ones for home decor! Traditionally these were used to accessorize cattle!
Reaching the lacquered woodworking village, I felt like I entered a place frozen in time, a century ago... They decorate wooden crockery with multicoloured lac patterns using a small hand-operated lathe. Watch the video below for its products & technique.
It was evening by the time I reached Nirona. This was the art in Kutch that was the most unusual for me! I met Padmashri Shri. Abdul Gafur Khatri here, the master Rogan painting expert. I also managed to see a 3 generation old, traditional Rogan art fabric here!!! Of course, I bought the authentic Rogan art Tree of Life here.
Why is Nirona Rogan Art unique? What is the speciality of Nirona Rogan Art? Unlike other textile crafts which mostly use plant dyes, this art primarily uses mineral dyes mixed with castor oil that makes a very oil-paint like consistency (obviously, right?)! So this is painted on the fabric with a small stick, making super-fine lines by guiding the fabric with another finger under the fabric. It reminded me a bit of Mehendi application. The pattern here is also symmetrical.
Nirona Rogan Art process: The first step is to create the pigments. It takes about a day in summers & 2 days in winters to make the pigment by mixing castor oil with mineral colours. Unlike other textile crafts, in the case of Rogan Art the design isn't traced at all. The design is directly made with the colour pigment. The pigment stands on the fabric like a Mehendi. After completing one half of the design, the fabric is folded & pressed. This enables the pigment to be transferred to the other half of the fabrics as well as push the pigments into the fibres of the fabric thereby flattening them. This step makes the wash fastness of the pigment excellent and the design doesn't wash off no matter how roughly you wash it as long as the life of the fabric itself! The next step is the add more colours to fill the design. Unlike the previous step, here the colours have to be added on either side separately.
Who makes Nirona Rogan Art? The Nirona Rogan Art is traditionally made only by the men of the Khatri community, but currently thanks to the efforts of Shri.Abdul Gafur Khatri, who has trained quite a few women, now women are also doing the Nirona Rogan Art.
The day was a whirlwind, to say the least. Here's a video of all these crafts being performed, the products being made. My mind was exploding with information and the beauty of the various arts and the love & simplicity of those people and how truly Incredible India is!!!
