Recently I received this Kalamkari fabric as part of an Ambassadorship program. Kalamkari, literally stands for art made with a pen. Traditionally and even today, this fabric is usually free hand painted on silk using only natural vegetable dyes. Such sarees are exquisite and expensive. The art is said to have originated in Iran. The motifs are nature inspired and vary between leaves, twines, flowers and sometimes elaborate and detailed birds painted with double curved lines and shapes filled with natural dyes. The art form is from the Southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. More recently, machine made screen printed Kalamkari on cotton is becoming famous as its more affordable and can cater to the masses. As this is based on natural dyes, the colours are muted and have an earthy, dull look and feel to them.
The fabric itself is completely out of my comfort zone. I like bright, saturated, clean looks in fabric and find it difficult to get my mind around earthy tones. Also, this Kalamkari is best suited for clothes, not much for shape holding projects like quilts and pouches. So its going to be a real challenge to make something from this. Am up for a new challenge this month 🙂
An applique quilt is what comes to mind with a matching mask and scrunchie set. Any other ideas?
Tagging this to One Monthly Goal for Jan’21 at Elm street Quilts and hoping I win someday 🙂
Creativeinstincts's Weblog 
Kalamkari material can be used to give it stability and then make pouches or tote bags with it. Why not try a short sleeveless jacket with hand quilting.
Hand quilting looks great on Kalamkari.