Craft visit to a village called Bagru near Jaipur to study Indigo dying with the talented craftsmen as a part of our learning in semester 4.
Bagru is known for natural dyes and hand block printing. Bagru is the place of Raiger and Chhipa community. Chhipa community people who are involved in this printing tradition since 100 years. Bagru is also known for natural dyeing, indigo dyeing and wooden hand block printing.
Bagru is most famous for its typical wooden prints. These prints of Bagru are acclaimed all over India and are particularly known as Bagru prints. The Prints of Bagru, unlike other prints, involve a different kind of printing. The unique method for printing employs wooden block in it. In the process, the desired design is engraved on the wooden block first and then the carved block is used for replicating the design in the preferred color on the fabric.
Chippa Mohalla is the area for those, who are interested in textile printing. One can walk into the quarter, where people are always engrossed with dyes and blocks. The three-centuries-old tradition of block printing is kept alive with the efforts of Bagru artisans. Keeping the convention, these artisans smear the cloth with Fuller's earth got from the riverside and then dip it in turmeric water to get the habitual cream color background. After that, they stamp the cloth with beautiful designs using natural dyes of earthly shades.
Even today, artisans use traditional vegetable dyes for printing the cloth. Like, the color blue is made from indigo, greens out of indigo mixed with pomegranate, red from madder root and yellow from turmeric. Usually Bagru prints have ethnic floral patterns in natural colors. Bagru prints form the essential part of the block printing industry of Rajasthan. The village fabricates some of the bed covers and other materials.
