CRAFTS OF INDIA / BAGH / PROCESS -1

CRAFTS OF INDIA / BAGH / PROCESS -1

 

There are three stages in the process: pre-printing, printing and post printing. Care is exercised equally in each stage to ensure a quality Bagh product.

Pre-printing process

-Raw material processing is carried out in copper tubs. In the pre-printing process, the fabric consisting of 100 single sheets is subjected to cleaning with water and by beating on stones in the river to remove all starch. It is then kept soaked in the river water for about 2 hours and then dried.

-The washed fabric is particular type of cloth which is subjected to boiling process in a bhatti or open boiler filled with a mixture of Aal (Alizarin), roots of Dhawdi flowers and water. This boiling process is done for 4 hours to ensure that the cloth is adequately dyed.

-After removing the cloth from the bhatti it is subject to cleaning process with water.

-Thereafter in the next process, called the Tapai fabrics like cotton, tussar, crepe, and silk are soaked in the bhatti through the night, and then subject to drying after washing in the flowing river water.

-A mixture of excrement of goats, raw salt known locally as sanchura, castor oil and water is prepared in a cement bucket, and the fabric is immersed in it and stomped. The substances react with each other to generate heat and this makes the fiber absorbent.

-Cloth is then subject to drying in layers on an inclined ground surface. The dried fabric is rinsed thoroughly in water, and prepared for printing. It is soaked in a starch solution of ‘Tarohar’ and ‘Harada’ powder and sun dried again. This also gives the fabric its yellow tone. It is necessary to dry it in the shade to prevent the desired yellow color from turning green due to the sun.