Kalamkari Painting
The red color is obtained by mordanting the cloth with alum. During this process, the areas which are intended to be red are painted with alum solution. While painting, The Kasim Kaaram-Iron solutionis mixed with the alum to obtain the darker red shades. And for lighter red shades alum is applied once. The painted alum cloth is allowed to dry for 2 days and then it is washed under running water. Now the boiling process is done using natural dye stuffs i.e. Suruduchakka (300 gm.) and chavalakodi tree root powders (1 Kg.) along with ½ Kg of alum are added in boiling water. The painted cloth is immersed in the solution and boiled for 30 minutes at a high temperature. Once the red color appears, the cloth is removed from the boiling solution. The cloth is now taken to the river water and it is washed repeatedly for 3 days near the bank of the river until the cloth is completely bleached. During this process, the colored areas remain the same and the rest part of the cloth is whitened. The colored cloth is again treated with buffalo milk for 10 minutes to avoid the color spreading.
