Gamthi Prints

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.

Block print motif (Image: gaatha.com)

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.

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!

Gamthi Prints from Amdavad

Bandhani or Bandhini

Bandhani is our own indigenous tie and dye method from the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat. Bhandhna ( बाँधना ) means 'to tie' and hence the name bandhani for this craft form. It is a simple craft form where in the areas that need to resist the dye are covered (by tying with strings) and the fabric then dyed. This results in spectacular patterns that are unique and cannot be replicated perfectly. Here is a crepe silk from Gujarat that has varying shades of blue due to the bleeding of colors in the washing process, but the inner patterns remain white. This was purchased at Pothys a decade ago.

Bandhani Crepe Silk

People from the Saurashtra region who migrated to the Madurai region during the Nayak period carried this craft form with them. The base color of the fabric is generally white or beige so as to let the pattern show through in the end product. The design is imprinted on the fabric and then the knots are tied (to resist the dye) as required to form a pattern and finally the cloth is dyed. Remove the threads and viola! You have a unique final product!!!

Bandhani - 1) Tied fabric 2) String removed 3) Fabric pressed to reveal pattern 4) Final product

I picked up this Bandhani cotton saree from Madurai. It has a chevron pattern pallu and a concentric circle pattern in the body with hand embroidery.

Bandhani Pallu of a Cotton Saree

 Body of the Cotton Saree which has Bandhani Pattern with embroidery done

 
As you can see, this is a labour intensive process as each knot has to be tied with hand. The more the number of knots, the more labour intensive it is and hence the price is also high. This has led to a decline in this craft form as patronage is low.The Crafts Council of India is working towards preserving this craft form.

A poor and cheap imitation of this art form is the local cousin Sungudi, for which Madurai is widely known.  This is created using screen printing method where in the pattern is created for the width of the saree and is printed repeatedly for the length of the saree. This is a Ranee Sungudi that I picked up from a recent Madurai trip - fell for the color combination!

Sungudi Saree

Wishing my (very few) readers a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2015!