Ajrakh
Ajrakh is a hand block printing textile from Kutch, Gujarat defined by its earthy dyes with motifs deriving inspiration from nature. It is believed that the word Ajrakh comes from 'azraq' which means blue/indigo in Arabic; a popular story amongst artisans is that Ajrakh means 'keep it today' (aaj rakh!)
The craft came to Kutch region in Gujarat from Sindh, while its roots stretch to the Indus Valley Civilization. Ajrakh is practiced in Kutch by the Khatri community who came together and formed their own village called 'Ajrakhpur' after the 2001 earthquakes damaged their hometown near Dhamadka river. They rebuilt their homes and workshops from ruins and the textile tradition lives on. The story of Ajrakhpur, is a living testament to the spirit of artisans who strive to protect the age-old art of creating handcrafted beauty!
Ajrakh is created in a long and intricate process with magical natural ingredients. The process involves stages of washing, hand block printing, dyeing and drying the fabric.
The making of Ajrakh
Washing
To begin with, pure white fabric is washed in water to remove starch and impurities. The fabric requires to be washed after each major step in Ajrakh. Water plays an important role in the process. It is recycled several times and later released for agricultural irrigation. Since, there are no chemicals involved, it is not harmful for the soil.
Hand block printing
Fabric is then soaked in a solution of harde(myrobalan nut). Harde gives the fabric a yellowish shade and acts as a mordant. Hand block printing is performed with hand carved teak wood blocks on the harde dyed fabric. It is carried out with a lot of precision and patience.
Hand block printing begins with resist print (shown in the pictures above), which prevents the printed part from getting coloured with dyes. Resist print paste is made with gum and lime.
Dyes are made using a mix of vegetable pigments and natural minerals to achieve different colours. For red, a paste of alum, red clay and gum is used. For black, they use scrap iron, jaggery and tamarind seed powder. Yes, scrap iron! The method to prepare black dye is shown below.
The containers are filled with scrap iron and jaggery water mixture, which is kept to ferment for 1-2 weeks. The mixture is then boiled with tamarind seed powder for at least an hour to achieve the perfect black colour. So interesting!
The picture below shows hand block printing done on the fabric with the three dyes mentioned above: resist, red and black. Red looks much lighter, almost pinkish here but, it will develop into the correct shade later. It's fascinating how each step brings about changes but, we do not realize it until the final result comes out.
Dyeing and drying
The block printed fabric is then dyed in Indigo which is the key dyeing ingredient in Ajrakh. Indigo dyed fabric needs to be dried flat in the sun. Indigo dyeing and drying is done twice to make the colour stronger. After that, it is washed well and sun-dried again.
Dyeing again
The washed indigo fabric is then dyed again by boiling it in a solution of dhawri(tamarix) and alizarin/madder root powder. This step allows the block printed areas to develop their respective colours and the resist areas are revealed as white. It is again washed and sun-dried as the final step.
In the pictures below, you'll find that the motifs have developed red colour after taking the fabric out from the solution. These were hand block printed with red dye in the initial steps, but like we said earlier, the expected result appears directly towards the end. So fascinating!
Experiencing the whole process and seeing the beautiful finished fabric feels nothing less than magic! As one of our artisans correctly said, "Itne saal ho gaye kaam karke par, ye sab kaise ho jata hai?! Jadu hi lagta hai" (we've been practicing this for years but, we still find it magical)