Kaisori discovers : The art of Syahi Begar

The ancient town of Bagru is home to many techniques of printing.Dabu,Jahota and Syahi Begar are the most predominant forms of printing still practiced in the region.

                 
Syahi Begar, is a traditional block printing technique from Bagru,Typical to any traditional printing, the first process is to scour and bleach the fabric popularly known as Teluni to emulsify the oils after washing of the fabric to remove impurities.

The washed fabric is now treated with Harda - a mordannt which acts a base for the dyeing process.Syahi or black is the color obtained from a mixture of horse-shoe iron, jaggery and water; Begar or the red color is made by mixing set quantities of alum, madder and resin from the Babool or Acacia tree. The different pastes are pressed to form floral and geometric prints with specially made wooden blocks from Pethapur.

                                    

The print starts with outlining the prints with a Syahi or black outline.This block is called Datta.The artisan uses the Begar  paste to fill in the printing outlines pr Datta earlier made by Rekhi blocks.This fabric is left out to dry in the sun  and washed a week a later to remove the gum from Begar.

The next step known as Bhatti lagana using a copper vessel . Red dyed fabric along with dhaura ka phool is added with drop of castor or sesame oil.The artisan boils the fabric in this hot water first and then washes it in the running colc water. It is allowed to dry in the scorching sun with sprinkling of water time to time.And finally it is ironed and you can see the different patterns coming alive in different colors on the fabric.

Over the couple of years we have been working with Bagru on experimental projects.Our latest collection has been created using Syahi Begar, and we call it Roheda - all new range using natural dyes to celebrate the tree of the desert.

The style and technique of printing gets a contemporary look in our new story from Bagru.A collection using fruits and colors of Roheda tree fruit as a color and design inspiration on this handcrafted range of silk cotton sarees stoles and dupattas from Bagru.

                   

                          

                   

We are passionate about discovering India through our work and present craft narratives through integration of a cultural and design interface.

At Kaisori, we work with artisans who are custodians of age old dyeing and printing techniques to bring you a new story of our rich Indian craft legacy.

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To know more about the our process and see the collection, do follow the link below

Process and pattern :https://www.instagram.com/tv/CKihB2PjPrC/

Collection : https://kaisori.com/collections/roheda-a-bagru-story