Ajrakh
Sixteen stages of indigo, madder and river water
Ajrakh is resist block-printing at its most demanding: cloth is washed, treated, printed and dyed up to sixteen times over weeks, building constellations of indigo and deep madder red. The Khatri printers of Ajrakhpur trace the craft through ten generations to Sindh, and every true ajrakh still needs a river's worth of patience.
- Saaj
The cloth is washed and treated with camel dung, soda ash and castor oil to open its fibres.
- Printing
Hand-carved wooden blocks stamp resist paste in precise repeats — the geometry must land within a millimetre.
- Indigo vats
The cloth goes into fermented indigo, oxidising from green to midnight blue as it meets the air.
- Madder boil
A final boil in alizarin and tamarisk brings up the deep reds and blacks, then the sun and river finish the job.
- — Ajrakhpur village workshops
- — Bhuj — Shroff Bazaar cooperatives
- — Khamir craft centre, Kukma
