Prints to fashion are what design is to a car. Various prints add dimension to the fabric and make the patterns look more beautiful. But how many of us really know what print is achieved how? Well, each one who has read this one will know it now.
Tie and dye is one of the most traditional and beautiful printing techniques which are in fashion and can never fade away. Batik, Bandhini (bandhej)and Laharia are various ways of tying and dyeing. The tying of cloth with thread and then dyeing, it is the simplest and perhaps the oldest form of creating patterns on a plain piece of cloth. The fabric is washed and degummed.
Often it is dipped in a mordant so that it can absorb the dye. The cloth is folded, first lengthwise, then width wise into four folds. The patterns on the body are then indicated all over the surface with the use of blocks dipped in gerua red mud colour. The fabric is gradually dyed to the final dark colour. The motifs vary according to the material used during tying like rice grains or marbles. This process could be really time consuming to achieve complicated designs with multiple colours. You can find Bandhini prints in the latest spring summer’09 collection of Alberta Ferretti and Tarun Tahiliani.
Another form of tie and die, which is a specialty of Rajasthan, is the lahriya and Mothra. Here the opposite end of the length of the cloth is pulled and rolled together. They are tied and dyed in different colours producing diagonal multi-coloured lines. When the same process is repeated by using the opposite ends, a check mothra is created. Batik is another technique of dying to achieve abstract designs, where the fabric is waxed abstractly and then dyed with different colours. These days we have started using chemical dyes however vegetable dyes were preferred initially. I kat is a process in which dying is done before weaving. First a design is drawn and the warp and weft threads are carefully measured, tied and placed in the dye solution. For fabrics of different colours, the ties are removed and the warp is retied and dyed again to create layers of colour. A Double I kat is when both the warp and weft are tie-dyed. Designers like DKNY, Oscar De La Renta and Marc Jacobs used. I kat for clothes and accessories as well. Fashion Week Models Photo
Block printing is a form of dying and colouring a fabric using wooden blocks. India is one of the largest manufacturers and exporters of block printed fabric in the world. Block printing craftsmen use wooden or metal blocks to create beautiful designs. Bagh and Maheshwari block printing motifs are famous. Motifs vary according to the state. Direct printing, discharge printing and resist printing are types of block printing. In the process cotton or silk cloth is first washed free of starch. Then it’s dyed. It’s washed thereafter to remove excess colours. Once the fabric is printed it’s dried in sun. Then it’s steamed after rolling it in newspaper. Ultimately dried and washed again. Ironing is the last stage.
Screen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil. It came into appearance for the first time in Chinadu ring the Song dynasty. Various techniques are known as Screen Printing, silkscreen and serigraph. Traditionally silk was used for screen-printing, hence the name silk screening. Screen printing is also a stencil method of print making in which a design is imposed on a screen of silk or other fine mesh, with blank areas coated with an impermeable substance, and ink is orced through the mesh onto the printing surface, also known as serigraph.
0 comments: