Process & Tools

1. The basic material is gray or unbleached cotton fabric.
2. To prepare it for printing and dyeing, the cloth goes through various processes: Soaking, washing and treatment with stem, sodium bicarbonate, castor oil, eruca sativa oil, camel dung and tamarisk or myrobalan.
3. The fabric is soaked in water which has camel dung immersed in it to make the fabric soft. This also acts as a bleaching agent as it is an alkaline and helps in the Printing of the fabric.
4. The first stage of printing includes mud resist which consists of natural gum, lime and Fullers earth and this produces a white outline on the finished fabric.

5. Next, a navy blue outline of mordant is printed which is made from iron scraps, ferrous sulfate and millet flour. When developed in alizerine this produces black color.
6. The same mordant as mentioned above is now used to print the filler.
7. A second resist treatment is printed on to protect the white fabric from the Subsequent indigo dyeing.
8. A third resist of gum and Fullers earth is then applied, mixed along with an alum mordant. This resist blocks penetration by indigo while the alum when treated with alizerine produces the Ajrak red.

9. The printed fabric is dipped in the vat containing indigo to dye the unresisted areas. A copper vessel is used for this process as copper does not leave its own color.
10. Thorough washing removes the excess indigo and degums the fabric.
11. Boiling the fabric in an alizerine solution develops the red and black mordants. After the cloth has been washed and dried, the desired areas are coated with a resist made of gum, lime and Fullers earth to prevent indigo dye penetration.
12. The final wash removes any excess dye and the resist from the fabric surface.
When worn and washed, the colors become more brilliant and luminous. There are 22 processes in Ajrak printing which are very tedious and time‐consuming, and very few crafts people go through all the stages. There are variations on the basic theme (teliAjrak) which make a number of different types of Ajrak (including sabuni ajrak, do rangi ajrak and kori ajrak). Ornamentation or meenakari, which takes another three to four steps, is done later on to decorate the fabric further.

The blocks used for ajrakh printing are made from sheesham wood, because it is softer than any other type of wood Shisham , wood used for making blocks. The blocks are dipped in oil for two to six months before these can actually be used for printing. Designs carved are generally traditional. Some of them are even taken from mohenjodaro’s time. These kinds of blocks are very expensive because of the originality and uniqueness in designs. These artisans carve designs also according to orders given by the buyers and the motifs which are in demand. Mustard oil is usually used to clean the blocks before and after use. These blocks are quite expensive as compared to the blocks which are available in delhi or other places. The reason being, the expensive wood and very delicate and intricate carving. The cost also depends on the design factor. If the design is very old and traditional, the cost is higher, whereas new ones cost comparatively lesser.

The traditional craft of ajrakh uses only natural colors (vegetable dyes) for its making. The usual colors of the craft are red, yellow, blue and black. However green and some other secondary colors are also used now-a-days. They are generally made by mixing the usual colors. The colors being made from all natural materials are harmless to the workers in all ways. Whereas the chemical ajrakh printing which has come up in the recent past uses chemical dyes which are very harmful to the health of the workers.

Fabric Used Is Generally Greige Cotton Fabric.(30s) Fabric is brought from tripu Means of transportation is generally Cost price is around The fabric is brought and washed on the very first day in soda ash to remove impurities. Then after drying the fabric it is again washed in harad. A wooden table is used by the workers to place the fabric for printing. It has around 40-50 layers of fabric on it so that it becomes easy for the main fabric to absorb color when it is printed. Babul wood is used for the making of the table as it cheap.

A wooden jaali is used in a wooden container which has the resist paste in it. It helps the thick layer of fabric to float over the paste so that the block picks up appropriate amount of color. A needle is used to carve blocks. Thickness of the tip of the needle depends on the amount of intricacy required in the design. Jaali Needle Tools Used Block Making