The craft of Ajrakh, "Aaj-rakh" or "Keep it today" is a resist block-print craft of Gujarat. It is an age old craft which can be traced back to the Indus valley Civilisation, Sindh area in the 1500 A.D.
It is a very natural craft which uses a variety of organic raw materials in multiple combinations to obtain the four colours of Ajrakh craft namely, Madder red, Indigo Blue , White and Black. Each of the colour signifies an earthen element and the whole theme of this craft is very celestial. While the white and black colour of Ajrakh signifies the stars and darkness respectively, the motifs of this craft are inspired from the shapes of stars and planets. Hence, we named the documentation of the craft 'Sindh Sitara'.
Deconstructed motifs of the craft.
The craft cluster visit to Ajrakhpur, Bhuj in Gujarat taught us a lot about this craft, the process, its traditional history, legends and future prospects. Here is a first-hand compilation of all the content, photographs, graphics and identity solutions we as students of Fashion Communication suggested to the artisans of Ajrakh we met.
Graphics and publication lay-outing by Sneha Choudhary and Tanvi Julka
The final display of our craft cluster project Sindh Sitara was inspired by the celestial theme of Ajrakh. A dominating indigo as the background, we scaled up the original Ajrakh wood block and created a huge wooden slab engraved with the Ajrakh motifs. The idea was to display how a plain fabric goes through a process which involves block printing, resist block printing, washing and dyeing to eventually come out as the beautiful, traditional Ajrakh.
Shelves were created to showcase the Identity and product packaging solutions that we suggested to the artisans.
The document and an Ajrakh original scarf placed on the engraved wooden block.
Thank You!
