Nandana saree

Nandana prints are block prints, whose history goes back over 700yrs, and going by the stories told by the traditional printers could be much older. Nandana prints were made for women’s skirts who belong to the tribes of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and parts of Gujarat. The printers in Tarapur have been making these prints and catering to the tribal market for centuries and still continue to do so.

The print requires four stages of printing as each motif requires four blocks to complete the print. This particular collection is made using eco-friendly natural dyes. Alizarin, indigo and pomegranate peel are used for the red, blue yellow and green colour. Mud resist has been used in the final two stages to prevent the colours penetrating the white areas on the buti. These sarees are made on soft cotton mul. These prints are made using over 50 years old blocks, each buta is made using four blocks for the four colours, white, red, yellow and green. The green is achieved by dying the fabric blue with indigo and then a dipped in pomegranate peel water gets the yellow and green. The process takes 8-10 days to print a Saree. The Nandana prints consist of mainly five butas, the largest one is jalam, the long one is Amba, a single flower is champakali and the smallest is mirchi buta. A pair of flowers is also used in these blocks which are interestingly called the dhola maru!