On an average, a printer needs at least four or five blocks to create a hand-block-printed textile design. Let us hope that they will be able to continue to pursue their craft for many more generations to come.For regular hand block printing, the Chippa dips the wooden printing block in the dye tray before pounding the block onto the fabric with his or her fist. Once the fabric has been chosen, it has to be vigorously washed to remove starch or oils to make it printable.From the Tirtanwala family, I visited the tiny showroom of another national awardee, Jugal Kishore. The essential red dye is made in different hues by mixing varying proportions of fitkari (alum), lal mitti (madder) and babul gond (acacia). Here the method and creation of some of the oldest designs in Bagru are represented, along with the wooden blocks used to create them.
It was he who gave me another insight on the textiles created in Bagru.A Chippa plans the number of blocks he needs to use, by the number of colours and shapes in the print design. It has managed to survive over a great many years.Preparing the fabric for printing is a not an easy task.What I really learnt during my visit was that the natural environment plays a major role in the creation of Bagru’s prints. Traditional Bagru prints use dark (or coloured) patterns on cream or dyed backgrounds. Before printing on any fabric, it is first soaked in harda — a natural mordant which gives the fabric a distinct yellowish colour and more importantly, ensures fast colours on the fabric.The black dye is made in a very special way. According to him, Bagru prints can usually be recognised by their colour — the cloth is usually cream-coloured or has a dyed base.
Horseshoes are kept on hot coals for long periods and then cleaned to remove rust. The carver then uses his skill with drills, chisels, hammers and files to recreate the pattern on the block. Despite the sparse rainfall, the Chippa clan has learnt to preserve water, often using their production water for irrigating crops. While no one could confirm that it had been made on these Couch fabric manufacturers premises, I was quite sure, my search was over. Blues are made from indigo, stored in dye vats that are at least, 10 to 12 feet deep. The horseshoes are then kept in containers of water and sugarcane juice and allowed to ferment for at least two months to ensure that the dye is dark and as permanent as possible. The making of these blocks can take a couple of days to be carved perfectly and the most popular woods used are sagwaan, sheesham or rohida. Another technique, called dabu, creates light-coloured motifs on a dark background using mud-resist printing. Once the block’s design has been sketched on paper, the pattern is drawn directly on the blocks of wood.
Water, mud, wood, plants, wind and dust all contribute to the making of its splendid creations. Prints used by Bagru Chippas are often geometrical shapes — such as jaali adapted from architecture, kangura (triangles), chaupad (checks) or leher (waves). It was here that I spied the print of the fabric that had been used to make my daughter’s lehnga. From the information given, one realises the vast amount of work it takes to create what looks like a simple printed piece of cloth.The writer is an author, a professional communicator and an intrepid traveller. There are also items made with discharge printing, using citric acid on grey alum dye
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