Bagru Handblock Printed Sarees

The gorgeous handblock printed sarees from Bagru,Rajasthan.

Bagru located 32 km west of Jaipur, has long been home to the  Chippa Community, a caste dedicated to the art of hand block printing. It's clay rich soil and hot, arid climate have for four centuries provided it with the perfect conditions for its unique style of printing. Bagru printers use a technique called “Dabu” in which a mixture of black clay, acacia gum, spoiled wheat flour, limestone, and cow pies is printed onto the fabric. The fabric can then be dyed and left in the sun to dry. When the Dabu is washed out the printed portions of the fabric are left undyed. Although synthetic dyes have been introduced to the textile industry, offering a much wider range of colors, the Bagru has kept up its tradition of  using natural dyes. These dyes include indigo blue, madder root red,  pomegranate yellow, harda yellow, syahi black, and a green obtained by mixing harda  and indigo.