Puru hand block printing: A tale of Craft Innovation

About

PuruPrint is a result of constant innovation & new product development process initiated by EcoFab with the family of state awardee late Purushottam ji Jhariya. 

Puru print is a new hand block print technique developed by EcoFab & two passionate “Chhippa” brothers Pawan & Banwari Jhariya of Tarapur village in Madhya Pradesh. It is similar to ajrakh technique but different ingredients used. It follows the traditional steps in hand block printing with minor changes in ingredients used in Ajrakh. Puru name is dedicated to the legendary hand block printer Late Shri Purushottamji Jhariya who created a unique technique of Tarapur print a combination of alizarin & dabu printing. For this unique combination of two different techniques he got state award from government. 

Puru also means heaven and it is repeated many times in Rig Veda one of the oldest known written scripture to the mankind.

Generally in Ajrakh printing designs associated with geometrical pattern mainly stars, sun and other geometrical motifs. In Puru print technique motifs are inspired from the nature and includes a range of geometrical, buta-buti & animal motifs in the process which differentiates it from traditional ajrakh developed by hand block printers of Sindh (Now in Pakistan) & Gujarat.

Design

Designs used in Puru hand block printing are inspired from nature and uses a variety of designs like animal, buta (tree) & geometrical patterns.

Process

In Puru print first fabric washed with fresh water and then keeps it in a solution of oil, soda ash & animal extract for 12 hours or overnight. After washing with plain water this process repeated once again. After washing with plain water it get dried in direct sunlight. Now fabric is dyed with myrabalan (Pre-mordant) to get it ready for printing.

First outline is printed using wooden block with a resist paste made of lime and black clay. Second block is used as a filler either alum (to get red) or black (made of jiggery & iron rust) color is printed. With third block it is used to print black color in case alum printed with previous block or vice versa. 

Now with the use of fourth block red & black color covered with resist paste. Now it is dyed in Indigo dye to get indigo blue or dyed with rubharb to get rust yellow or brown background. After washing it kept for drying, then next day it is again dyed with alizarin to get red in place of alum printed on the fabric and to fix black color printed. After drying and washing with normal water fabric or Saree is now ready.