The Art of Ajrakh — Jabbar & Adam Khatri
/Recorded September 14th, 2017 at the Maiwa School of Textiles Lecture Series
Traditional ajrakh block printing is one of the most iconic crafts to survive into the twenty-first century. But ajrahk, as practiced by the Khatris of the Kachchh Desert, has done much more than just survive; it has flourished and expanded to become a craft with a keen sense of tradition and a vision for how this tradition can be taken into the future by a new generation of ajrakh artisans.
Join Jabbar and his son Adam Khatri as they explain what it is to practice a craft that goes back over ten generations. Jabbar’s father could sell his block prints in the local market, but Jabbar and Adam now deal with corporate clients and international exhibitions — new challenges in a fast-changing world.
The Khatris will also explore innovations necessary to move the natural-dye block-print technique into other fibres (such as silk and wool) and talk about the execution of masterworks: exquisite double-sided, large -format ajrakhs.
Read more about ajrakh block prints and the people who make them here.
