Qalamkari : beyond a hand-woven , a pure experience of elegance and originality

Kalamkari on cloth is one of the very genuine products of Isfahan which even today has its own fans.  millions of this splendid handicraft of Isfahan is sold to local and international tourists yearly and it is one of the most attractive handicrafts in Iran. This fabric is beautiful, Functional, long lasting, cheap compared to other handicrafts, old fashioned and beyond all of this very genuine in form of design and history. This handicraft was invented by Isfahan craftsmen around Ghaznavids era (977 to 1186) and after that introduced to all the Iranian people as a very useful and functional item which even today has its own position in new age history and contemporary art in national and international level. The Ghalamkari fabric is pure cotton handmade fabric which is woven by Isfahan handicraft and is pure herbal fabric. Because all dyes and pints are water soluble, the fabric cannot have artificial treads inside. Because of this quality the value of the kalamkari fabric is twice. The history of kalam kari in Isfahan is unique because it is the extraction of other arts in old times. Actually in old times there were many talented craftsmen who joined together to make a new line of handicraft production that contains the extraction of some other products together.

Original Iranian Engravings in Qalam kari

To make the kalamkari fabric we need a wooden stamp which is made by wood carvers of Isfahan. Besides you need a fabric that is woven by traditional fabric makers. To make the stamp you need a new design which is produced by painters or miniature designers and at last you need new dyes and paints that are normally produced by local paint and dye makers for other products and all of these happened at the same time. traditional Ghalam kari designs and beautiful kalamkari painting belong to Isfahan artists and you cannot find any replica of them in other parts of the country. It means to find traditional kalamkari fabric just in Isfahan and genuinely this art is hundred percent from Isfahan and even if you find it in other handicraft stores around the country, you can be hundred percent confident that it is produced just in Isfahan. On some occasions you can find different kinds of Ghalamkari in which the fabric is more expensive and made by very expensive fabrics like kalamkari silk fabric or other materials. These kinds of fabrics are exotic and in normal Qalam kari the weavers just use cotton or other herbal materials like cotton to print them with herbal paints and dyes. Kalam kari print is a hard job and a very time consuming process. kalamkari material and kalamkari style are varied and even repeating them needs long time experience. The masters today are few and Ghalamkari print techniques are secret of Isfahan masters.

Tools for creating the elegance of kalamkari

To make a good kalamkari fabric you need three Items. The first one is the natural hand woven fabric from natural supplies like cotton. The second is the wooden stamp carving, The third and last one is natural dyes like Turmeric, cochineal, walnut husk, ….etc.

Design and motives

To produce traditional kalamkari painting,  masters try the most complicated design to show off their abilities and use the best material to guarantee the life of cloth for months and years. The kalamkari fabric is not limited to one or two products but you can find a variety of products like tablecloth, praying mat, cushion, bedspread, handbag, scare or even clothes. Kalam kari clothes are so beautiful . But the most usual form of this fabric is tablecloth and bedspread. Today the new generation has its own understanding of art and artistic materials and they changed most of traditional concepts, because of this today you can find handbags or mobile cloth in the market and the young girls are very proud having this kind of old fashion handicraft products in new form and design. Fortunately, this act injected new blood in the sleeping body of old fashion handicrafts like Ghalamkari too. Kalamkari fabric production has different steps. And in order to create a good cloth the following steps:

The secret of creating a Ghalamkari

First of all you should soak the cloth in a water pool at least for 5 days, after this step you should bump the cloth to a solid surface like rock until all the extra materials and fluids leak out, after this all the fabrics should spread in face of sun and get dried well, in advance the craftsmen prepare a herbal bath filled by pomegranate skin and some other herbal secret material which give the fabric a pale yellowish color to the body of the fabric, so they soak the cloth to the bath and wait until the color absorbed by the fabric. After this process they spread the cloth again in the face of hot desert sunshine, they get dry and ready to stamp. To make a stamp, first you should make a template, the design is a cocktail of all primitive designs of carpets, tiles, fabrics, stuccos …etc. in other word this art is a cocktail of all arts and handicrafts of generations before. After making the stamp the craftsmen cover the whole cloth with designs and motives step by step. As an example, first they use blue color and by repeating the design they cover the cloth by blue color step by step. After completing one color, they use different colors and different stamps until the whole design is complete and the whole face of the fabric is covered by all colors of the designer's mind. To stamp the fabric, the craftsman put the stamp on a pillow soaked by color or dye and waited a short time for a moment to absorb the water color, after that he put the stamp on the fabric for seconds to transfer the color on the fabric properly. After this step they wait hours to let the fabric dry completely. The next step is boiling to fix the colors in a way it lasts for years. To fix the colors during the boiling process they add some fixing materials and solution to the boiling bath. Again they soak the fabric in the river and wash the fabric several times until by experience they find the best fixing time and let the fabrics dry again. Today they iron the fabrics and check any faults. Now the fabric is ready to sell to the market.
The dyes or paints of kalamkari are made totally from natural herbs. For example, they use pomegranate skin, walnut husk, cochineal, lapis lazuli, turmeric, and some other herbal products and there is a line of producers which supply the needs of Qalam kari craftsmen.
The stamp of kalamkari has its own characters. The wood to make stamps is normally chosen from peach or pear trees, the reason for using this kind of wood is hidden in the body and texture of pear wood. All wood strands are interwoven together enough for carvers to carve very deep and bring out the body of wood in a way that liners of design are deep enough that never let the dye or color run to each other and make shades on the fabric. After making the stamp they soak in in black color and add some other secret additives to protect it against rust and other hazards through time. Even today there are masters that use stamps of their fathers or even ancestors from old time but the quality is the same and as well as the first day the wood carver had made it.
The design and motifs of the kalamkari are very complicated as we talked about before. Because the design is an extraction of other designs gathered together and made a solid design, the complexity of Kalam kari designs is enormous. In Qalamkari design there is a frame around the fabric first, in the corners there are four perpendicular motives which in our mother language we call it “lachaki”, in the center of the design there is a round design which named “ Torang'' meanwhile there are thousands of forms of flowers and motives in colorful form which is used to fill the final design. Just adding more motives, the craftsmen use millions of forms and designs which repeating forms sometimes is strictly hard. Because of this even related craftsmen have unique products and this will give you more confidence to understand that kalamkari is a very unique and genuine art from Isfahan.
Because the fabric and colors of kalamkari are totally natural and fixed during the production process you can wash the cloth in the washing machine at normal temperature and there is no special consideration for cleaning the fabric. You can wash and clean it regularly and because of this character people like it. There are thousands of people who are fans of it and you can find Qalamkar cloth not just in Iran but you can find it in many international fabrics stored round the world.
Kalamkari has a very special position among all souvenirs from Isfahan. It is more genuine among all souvenirs made in the market and it is genuinely invented by Isfahan craftsmen. It is not expensive and more functional, totally handmade and functional. It has a vast number of designs and colors and fulfills all desires of different fans and customers. Next time you travel to Isfahan , do not forget to choose kalamkari cloth as a souvenir for your family. You never lose. I Hope we visit you soon.