Gamthi as the name indicates comes from Gaam or Graam (ग्राम) - the village! It is a block printing technique from the western state of Gujarat and is widely available throughout the state.
As with all things historic, this printing method also used natural dye colors obtained from Indigo, turmeric, henna leaves, roots, barks of trees etc. But as to whether the process still remains the same, is a question that I do not have an answer for.
The most difficult part is in creating the intricate motif on a piece of teak wood. The reason to use teak wood is because it is one of the strongest hard woods available in India and lasts for a long period of time. The longevity of the block is worth the time spent in crafting the block design. Below is a picture of a block print design.
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| Block print motif (Image: gaatha.com) |
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Seen below is an image which shows block printing in progress. A beautiful writeup on the Gamthi block printing process can be found
here. Yet another wonderful writeup of the block printing process (by an excellent photographer) can be found
here.
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| Gamthi Block Printing (Image: lojadela.wordpress.com) |
I am sure we all wear these prints, but
never realize that it is Gamthi. Many of the cotton salwar kameez
material with block print designs from Surat, Mumbai etc. are all
Gamthi. The base material on to which the printing will be done has to be slightly thick so as to bear the brunt of the dye. And when block printing is done, you can see that the dye penetrates all the way to the reverse of the cloth, unlike screen printing where it will be visible only on one side.
All my Gamthi prints were picked up at Amdavad. As you can see there are lot of imperfections and that's what makes it hand made!
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| Gamthi Prints from Amdavad |
