Bagru Hand Block Printing

1. Bagru Block Printing - Painting The Desert The 400 years old village of Bagru was once an island in the river Sanjharia. With copious amounts of sunlight, water from Sanjharia, and the patronage of a benign ruler, Bagru village evolved as the hub of hand-block printing. Though the river later dried up, the craft stayed with the villagers, who perfected the two native printing techniques - Bagru block printing and Dabu resist printing. Bagru town, now marked as GI (Geographical Indication), is home to the Chhipa community - the printers of hand-blocked fabrics. The word chhipa is either from chapa to print, or the Nepali words chhi (dye) and pa (dry). Either way, the fabric drying grounds of Bagru, splashed with vibrant hues, are always thick with the scent of dyes, as the Chhippa clan has been block printing clothes here for generations. Bagru Hand Block Printing Preparations In Bagru, dyeing and printing are community activities. Artisan families of block carvers, dyers, chhipa printers, and launderers work synchronously to create magic on clothes. CARVING BLOCKS The carvers decide the designs, shapes, colours, and sizes of blocks before the etching and chiselling. An average-sized cloth requires anywhere between four to five blocks. Artisans use three types of blocks for the designs: the background block - gudh, the outline block - rekh, and the filling blocks - datta. Though it takes a couple of days to select, season, and carve one block, depending upon the intricacy of the pattern, it might take longer. Teak, Desert Teak, Indian Rosewood, etc., are the popular wood choices for the blocks. While teak is soft and durable, rosewood is resilient and suitable for tricky carvings. MOTIFS It is difficult to trace the origins of popular Bagru motifs. Yet, like Dabu, Bagru too appears to have drawn inspiration from nature. Birds, flowers, tendrils, and human and animal figures are commonly used, along with geometrical shapes like waves, checks, triangles, and grids of trellis or jaals inspired by Mughal architecture. COLOURS Before dyeing, the fabric is soaked in harda - a mordant prepared with myrobalan that helps the dye absorb into the cotton. Harda acts as a primer for the dye. As in any traditional dyeing process, the Bagru blues are indigo. Begar or reds are a combination of madder, alum, and acacia arabica. Syahi or black is from iron rust, fermented sugar cane juice, and water. Red kashish with water yields brown. These days artisans add chemical dyes to their natural concoctions to bring out the hues.

2. Bagru Hand Block Printing Process The harda-dyed cotton is dried in the sun as the first step to printing. These clothes initially carry a yellow tint, which later disappears on washing. The artisan then lays out the cloth for printing. Hand blocking needs precision and patience. He places the block on the cloth and slams hard at its back for a clear print. Once the dyes dry, the clothes are washed again in cool water. After this comes boiling the clothes to fix the colours. Reds are fixed separately with alizarin. Finally, the clothes are sun-dried once again. Bagru in the present day Bagru has come a long way from ghagra cholis and prints and colours that demarcated one caste from another. Today it is a popular choice for garments and furnishings. Bagru printed curtains, bedspreads and cushions impart a warm, rustic vibe to the setting, just as it adds an ethnic charm to that bohemian skirt. Handpicked Bagru prints of Klum hold the essence of the sun and the sand and embody the spirit of the long-lost Sanjharia.