Siva Sai Kalamkari Fabricks

Our workshop is in the 7th Ward of Pedana and if you know this town you know it’s famous for Kalamkari. We spend our days working with wooden blocks and natural dyes to put patterns onto fabric. It’s a messy job sometimes with the colors getting on your hands and clothes but that’s just part of the process. Siva Sai Kalamkari Fabricks isn't a big factory with automated machines or anything like that. Everything we do involves a lot of manual labor and many different steps from washing the cloth in the local water to letting it dry in the sun. The weather in Pedana really dictates when we can work especially when it comes to the drying stages. We have a small yard where we lay out the fabrics and you can see all the different designs blowing in the breeze. The 7th Ward is a quiet neighborhood and most of the people living around here are also involved in some kind of craft or trade. We’ve lived here our whole lives so we know everyone and they know what we do. It’s a slow way of working compared to the big mills but we like the way the finished fabric feels after it’s been through all the traditional steps. We just take things one day at a time and keep the tradition going as best as we can without making things too complicated.