Printing and painting
The art and technology of permanently coloring cloth with dye originated in India and spread throughout the world via trade. As early as 3000 BCE, Indian dyers were producing solid colored and patterned cloth using vegetable dyes and mordants. Some of the cloth was patterned through printing, a technique that uses very simple tools. Printing, painting, and batik are grouped together here because they share some common principles.

Hand printing and painting is done by three methods. Dye is applied directly to the cloth by means of a printing block or a paint brush. Adinkra cloth from Ghana is an example of direct printing.

When wax or a starch that blocks dye penetration is applied by either brush or block it is called resist printing. When the cloth is put into the dye solution, the resist areas remain the original color.

Batik from Indonesia, adire and stencil patterns from Nigeria and drawn and stencil patterns from Japan use this technique. The tjanting and tjegul are batik tools that originated in Indonesia. Brushes, feathers, combs and other implements have been used to create resist patterns.

In India and Iran, another method is used whereby mordants-the chemical agents that create the bond between fiber and dye-are applied to the undyed cloth either by printing or painting with a brush or pen. When the cloth is immersed in the dye bath the areas with mordant take on color while the rest of the fabric remains undyed. In India the resulting fabric is called kalamkari, meaning pen work. In Iran it is known as qalamkar.

Adinkra cloth is a stamped fabric that is made in Ghana, Africa. Symbolic motifs which represent proverbs are carved from calabashes, a type of gourd, and are dipped into a black dye made from the bark of the badie tree. Adinkra artists divide the fabric into squares and then create patterns and repetitive designs using the inked stamps. When it is used for funerary or ceremonial occasions the cloth is yellow or red. However, the stamped designs are always printed in black. Adinkra cloth has been used traditionally for funerary occasions, but has grown in popularity and the symbols can be seen on a variety of clothing and objects.

Vocabulary

Adinkra - Ghanaian textiles created by printing with carved calabashes on fabric
Ancestors - people from whom one is descended
Calabash - a gourd
Ceremony - a formal act or acts prescribed by ritual, protocol or convention
Gourd - a family of plants that includes pumpkin, melon, squash and cucumber
Pattern - a grouping of shapes, forms, objects, concepts or behaviors that repeats
Proverb - a brief saying that is a general truth, fundamental principle or rule of conduct
Repetition - happening more than once
Symbol - something that stands for something else
Tradition - behaviors that have been passed down through generations

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