Two processes, one name
Kalamkari is not one thing. The word covers two entirely different ways of putting colour onto fabric, and the Indian textile trade has been comfortable letting you confuse them for decades. The first is hand painting with a kalam, a tapered bamboo or palm pen dipped in fermented jaggery and water, then in natural dyes, on cotton or silk that has been mordanted with myrobalan. The second is block printing, where carved wooden blocks are pressed onto fabric in repeating patterns. Both produce beautiful cloth. Only one of them takes a craftsperson three to six weeks per metre.
