Ajrakh Hand Block Suit Set fabric: Madder Dusk

Sanjh is the hour when the sun has gone but the earth still holds its heat. This set carries that light.

The kurta fabric is a deep madder-black ground, printed with fine floral butis and slender cream sprigs that run like grass along the panel, closing into a broad terracotta border of interlocking jaali medallions the motif Ajrakh printers have carried for generations. The bottom picks up the same geometry in miniature, a quiet, close-set butti that lets the kurta lead. The dupatta turns the palette inside out: a warm madder-red field bordered in black and cream, finished with hand-knotted indigo tassels.

Every colour here comes from the earth itself madder root for the red, indigo for the blue, iron and tannin for the black, and the natural cream of the undyed cloth showing through where the resist has held. Each length passes through repeated rounds of washing, resist-printing and dyeing at the hands of Ajrakh printers in Kutch, a process measured in weeks, not hours.

Small variations in block placement, an occasional deepening or lightening of colour, a motif that meets its neighbour a fraction off  these are the printer's hand on the cloth. They are the proof, not the flaw.

kind of dense fill work that takes the most practised hand on the table. The dupatta repeats the pattern in a softer scale and ends in indigo tassels, knotted by hand.

Made to be worn often. Cotton that softens with every wash, and a print that settles rather than fades.

Ajrakh is a slow craft  sixteen to twenty rounds of printing, washing, dyeing and sun drying, with the fabric returning to the river and the sun between each stage. Slight variations in the print register and colour depth are not flaws. They are the record of a human hand.

Details

• Craft: Ajrakh hand block printing, natural dyes
• Origin: Kutch, Gujarat
  
• Set includes: Kurta fabric, bottom (pajama) fabric, dupatta
• Kurta length: 2.5 m
• Bottom length: 2.5 m 
• Dupatta: 2.25 m x 1.1 m, with hand-knotted tassels.
• Colours:black, red.
• Unstitched fabric set
  

Wash Care

• Dry clean recommended for the first wash
• Thereafter, hand wash separately in cold water using a mild liquid detergent or reetha (soap nut)
• Never bleach. Avoid detergents with optical brighteners or enzymes
• Do not soak for more than 5 minutes
• Some colour will run in the first two or three washes this is normal for natural dye and settles on its own
• Dry in shade, inside out. Direct sunlight will flatten the madder
• Iron on medium heat, on the reverse side
• Store folded in cotton or muslin, away from damp