The Craft Diaries - Ajrakh

Ajrakh

Ajrakh is thousands of years old and different from the pigment block-printing techniques mainly used in Jaipur. The craft belongs to the Maldhari Pastrol community of Bhuj who have been printing for 400 years.

The cotton or silk fabric is dyed using natural vegetable and plant dyes and then printed with mud and other natural colours. Once it has been baked out in the sun to process, it is then washed by hand in water baths.

There is a beautiful simplicity and timelessness to the fabrics and we are looking forward to introducing some Ajrakh prints next autumn.

It's common to find weaving happening in people's homes in Kutch. We stumbled across a family Mushroo weaving in their backyards. They were setting their silk thread in the field which took the entire day to assemble. The weft is cotton and the warp is silk and requires the weaver to peddle with his or her legs and arms simultaneously.

This fabric has a beautifully rich silk front whilst the cotton sits against the skin. Mushroo means ‘this is allowed’ in Arabic and was originally woven for Muslim communities who believed silk should not touch a person's skin. Its demand is decreasing and now rayon threads are being used instead of silk.