How Kalamkari is made: pen, block and screen

Kalamkari reaches you in three ways today. Each has its place; what matters is knowing which one you are buying. Where a piece's details on Kalamkari House give the technique, such as "Screen Printed", that is how it was made; if a piece doesn't say, ask us before you order.

1. Pen Kalamkari (drawn by hand)

The oldest form. An artisan draws the outlines freehand with a kalam, a pointed bamboo pen with a cloth pad that holds the dye, and fills in the colours by hand. A single large piece can take weeks. This is the Srikalahasti style.

2. Block-printed Kalamkari

The Machilipatnam and Pedana style. Designs are carved into wooden blocks, and the printer stamps them one after another along the cloth, lining up each impression by eye. Small shifts between repeats are normal; they are the sign of a hand at work.

The traditional natural-dye process

Traditional Kalamkari, pen or block, goes through many rounds of treating, printing, washing and drying:

• Preparing the cloth: the cotton is soaked in a mixture of myrobalan (a dried fruit rich in tannin) and milk, which helps the dyes take evenly.
• Black: outlines come from a fermented solution of iron and jaggery, which turns black when it meets the tannin in the cloth.
• Red: alum is printed where red is wanted, and the cloth is then boiled with a red dye root, so the colour fixes only where the alum is.
• Blue comes from indigo.
• Yellow comes from plant dyes, often painted over blue to make green.

Between stages the cloth is washed in running water and dried in the sun. Not every Kalamkari piece today is made this way: when a piece's details give the dye type, that is what was used.

3. Screen-printed Kalamkari

Many Kalamkari designs today are screen printed: the design is transferred through fine mesh screens, one colour at a time, usually with modern dyes. Screen printing is faster and brings Kalamkari motifs to more people at lower prices. Pieces printed this way are called "screen printed" or "Kalamkari-inspired", not hand-painted or block-printed.

Many of the dress materials and fabrics on Kalamkari House, and some sarees, are screen printed, and their details say so.

How to tell them apart

• Look for the hand. Pen and block work show small irregularities: slight changes in line thickness, or repeats that don't line up exactly. Screen prints are very even.
• Turn the cloth over. Traditional dyes soak through, so the design shows on the back almost as strongly as on the front. Many screen prints are paler on the back.
• Smell and feel. Naturally dyed cotton often has a faint earthy smell when new, and feels soft rather than coated.

See also: How to identify genuine Kalamkari and How to wash and care for Kalamkari.