Block printing is an ancient art that has been practised in India for the thousand of years the earliest evidence of this craft dates back to the time to Alexander the great wherein he has specifically mentioned India's ‘ beautiful printed cotton’ .
1.1 BAGH : A geographical introduction Bagh is a village in Dhar district of Madhya pradesh it is around 150 km from Indore and the place is famous for ancient Bagh caves.
1.2 BAGH PRINTING: It is a traditional hand block print with natural colours using labour intensive technique.
1.3 PROCESS OF BAGH PRINT:
a. Preparation of design: the master weaver prepares design on graph paper this is normally a geometrical pattern or a natural design with flower and leave.
b. Selecting the wood for the blocks- teak wood pieces without defects like warping knots, or irregular granules are selected for the prepration of wooden blocks.
c. Engraving designs on the block- the craftmans engraves the delicate designs on the block using sharp carpentry tools.
d. Preserving the blocks - once prepared these block are emersed in oil for a few day to provide greater stability to them and to protect them against warping and insect attack.
a. Khara karna- The fabric is first washed in running water/river but due to shortage of river water it is now done at workshop for this process the fabric is dipped in plain water for morning to evening in cemented tanks.
b. Megni Karna- The cloth is brought back to workshop, and dipped in solution of castor oil, sanchora( raw sea salt) and goat droppings, which is soaked for two hours and then the dry it on stones in sunlight.
c. Treating with Harana- Fabric is treated with a solution of Harana, again dried and the fabric is ready for printing.
d. Printing- At these stage cloth is printed by hand using wooden block, it takes minimum 2 weeks fot the colours to be absorbed by the fabric.
a. Vichaliya process- Now the fabric is washed in flowing water.
b. Bhatti process- In order to provide the Bagh print cloth their characteristic contrast and finishing, the cloth is passes through the boiling process, for this alizarin and dhavadi flowers are boiled together in big copper container. Again the fabric is washed, then dried, which is then ready to use.
