“I was inspired with the way Indian craftsmen had beautifully interpreted designs which came from the West. Even though they were not familiar with the flora and fauna, they interpreted them in their own way. This led to creation of exotic designs in both West and India. This made me ask myself if it is possible to reproduce 17th Century chintz in contemporary times,” says Renuka Reddy, craft and textile specialist for two decades.
Bowled over by the beauty and workmanship of historic chintz, Renuka has gone the extra mile by using traditional methodology practised by indigenous craftspersons . This entailed putting handspun and handwoven cotton cloth inside a bucket full of buffalo milk and later sheep dung before exposing it to sunlight. All this was necessary to present chintz – hand-painted, resist and mordant dyed cotton cloth – in its original avatar. This textile revivalist single handedly working on mastering this technique for the past six years at her studio in Bengaluru is showcasing 17 work at her solo exhibition, The Art of Hand Painted Chintz, at New Delhi’s Gallery Art Motif.
While taking a look at her work, one can only speculate identity of timeless flowers. Red rose is palpable but others have been created through imagination. Leaves look like botanical drawings and branches are extension of undulated trees. “I am focusing more on technique than art form here. The works are reproductions of works done by Indian artists,” says Renuka, whose Chintz project could not have materialised without mastering wax resist technique on cotton.
Explaining how she combined her extensive studies and work in textiles to follow on the footsteps of Indian artisans of the 17th Century, Renuka, , says: “I was inspired by book ‘Chintz, Indian textiles for the west’ penned by Rosemary Crill, former curator at Victoria and Albert Museum, London. “Rosemary gave me a lot of support. But I could not find craftsperson who could do this intricate work. So I did a lot of research for six years. I went through thousands of research papers of international journals. Working in Faureia Automotive Seating in the U.S. helped me in writing scientific thesis and this prepared me how to plan. My job was to evaluate properties of technical textiles. I could not have done all this without experience.”
Knack for detailing
Describing Chintz as a tedious process involving chemistry and plenty of patience, Renuka says: “To get chintz one has to expose cotton cloth to harsh sunlight for 21 days. The challenge before me how to ensure that the dyed colour survived after three weeks in sunlight. So I had to do lot of experimentations and find my own way.
The process involves step by step approach. I soaked and rubbed cotton cloth with myrobalan and buffalo milk, which due to its fat content allows cotton to become paper like.
Later, the handspun and handwoven cloth was dried under sun. This was crucial as it allowed mordants and dyes to be painted on cloth without spreading. Black outlines were drawn with fermented iron while red outlines were drawn with alum mordant. Cloth was washed and dyed in a bath of madder to develop reds and deepen black. Wax resist lines were painted on the cloth to get the fine white lines, which is a quintessential characteristic of chintz. Cloth was treated with buffalo milk to prepare it for painting blues and yellows. Wax lines were again painted to retain the white background colour in blue and green areas. Cloth was finally washed again and treated with sheep dung and sunlight for the last time.”
What’s next? “My next big challenge is mastering indigo. Indian artisans would cover all areas of the cloth and dip in indigo. They were so good in it that there were no cracks,” she says with pride.
