The Hindu Business Line : Hand-painted dreams

Mamata Reddy is one of the lucky ones who has managed to realise her dream. What’s more, hers was in brilliant colours! A successful entrepreneur today, with a profitable turnover, Mamata began her sojourn with Kalamkari in 1991 with no prior training or expertise. A chance encounter with the languishing art stirred this maths graduate from Tirupati into action. With a tiny investment of Rs 500, Mamata ventured into the business with a team of traditional Kalamkari a rtists in Kalahasti. They began by producing wall hangings, cushion covers, coin purses and so on. Over time, after surmounting many initial difficulties in quality and supply, Mamata’s Kalam Creations is today a name to reckon with in the field of fashion and designer-wear.

Lakme Fashion Week 2007 saw her Kalamkari used by a Hyderabad-based designer. Designers from Delhi, Bombay and Ahmedabad regularly use her work, made to their specification. Besides the traditional Mangalagiri cottons, Kalamkari is today made on chiffons, georgettes, and even Kanchipuram silks, combined with embroidery. High-fashion wear like ghagras, skirts, stoles, cholis, saris and dupattas are individually designed by Mamata, who incorporates traditional motifs of birds and flowers as well as mythological themes from the Ramayana.

Sari with Kalamkari work and block prints.

She incorporates ancient Indian embroidery styles through her work with 20 Muslim embroidery experts in Hyderabad who are originally from Lucknow. Pitta and badla work is done on the painted material — a unique, completely handmade effort that is prized by the customer.

Mamata travels to remote places like Bagh and interior Rajasthan, carrying with her Orissa ikats, southern cottons and Maheshwaris to be block-printed in those places in colours of indigo and red. These are later hand-painted at Kalahasti and, if required, embroidered too. A painted piece was recently sent to Lahore for the embroidery, on a particular order.

Celebrity orders have started coming in too — recently, former chief minister Chandrababu Naidu ordered a specially made addu thara, a ceremonial cloth, for his son’s wedding. This was a rich red raw silk piece featuring Kalamkari motifs of gods, embellished with gold embroidery.

The wedding also brought orders for Kanchipuram silk saris with Ramayana borders and pallus, and ghagras with Kalamkari and embroidery.

The SAARC Chamber Women Entrepreneur Council (SCWEC) now conducts a three-month training programme in Kalamkari work for women living below the poverty line.

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