Linen dress handpainted in warm brown-red tones

A unique dress, completely hand-painted by a women's collective in India.
The dress fits sizes 38 to 42. This dress is painted with stylized flowers in warm brown-red-yellow tones.

Natural coloring agents

Kalamkari, the manual painting of textiles, only uses natural dyes. The dyes are extracted from plants, roots, leaves and other plant material. To ensure that the colors are suitable for use in textiles, mineral salts of iron, tin, copper and alum are used.

Soak in buffalo milk

The first step in making Kalamkari is soaking the textile in a bath of substances that ensure that the paint is well retained. One of the ingredients is buffalo milk. If you think this scarf smells a bit typical, then you know: it's buffalo milk. The smell will disappear on its own over time.

Drawing with bamboo and cane sugar

The next steps of Kalamkari consist of applying various colors, outlines with natural mordant and finally parts are painted by hand. The outlines of the design are applied with a bamboo or date palm stick with a bundle of fine hair at the end. This brush is soaked in a mixture of cane sugar and water.

The complete process of Kalamkari consists of no less than 23 steps.