Kalamkari designs are known for it's paintings and print designs on cotton textiles.Kalamkari literally means the art of decoration with the help of a pen. In the word kalamkari, ‘kalam’ means pen and kari means to decorate. Kalamkari is an exquisite ancient craft of painted and printed fabrics. kalamkari bags and kalamkari bed sheets are considered very popular. It has evolved in two villages in Andhra Pradesh at a place called Srikalahasti, 80 miles north of Chennai near Tirupati and Masulipatnam, 200 miles east of Hyderabad. Both centers have a distinct style of Kalamkari. Making Kalamkari bags is a very time consuming process of resist – dyeing and hand printing. There is huge succession of stages before the final stage can be arrived at. Kalamkari painting does require a lot of treatment before and after the painting is completed on the cotton fabric.Inspired by the Islamic mythology, renditions of flora and fauna were common in this school of Kalamkari, especially ‘The Tree of Life’ motif. Themes from the Old Testament in the Bible also were common occurrences to meet the demands of the west.Various products such as stoles,scarves,kalamkari bags,kalamkari bedsheets
decor,stationary etc.GMR Varalakshmi Foundation's empowershop sells a wide range of kalamkari products such as bags,bedsheets etc.The money made here will be completely used for empowerment of underprivileged women.In order to check out the products kindly visit www.empowershop.org
