Shantiniketan Batik & Leather Craft
Batik-dyed cloth and tooled, batik-patterned leather bags — a craft grown from Tagore's art school.
Shantiniketan, the town that grew around Rabindranath Tagore's school and Visva-Bharati University in Birbhum, West Bengal, is known for two related crafts. Batik — wax-resist dyeing — is worked on cotton and silk for sarees, stoles, dupattas, kurtas and furnishing, with crackled grounds and floral, folk and abstract designs. And Shantiniketan leather craft makes bags, satchels, purses, folders, wallets, belts and footwear from vegetable-tanned leather, decorated with batik dyeing, hand-tooling, painting and embossing in tribal and folk motifs.
Craft at a Glance
Origin
Shantiniketan, West Bengal
Also Known As
Shantiniketan batik, Bolpur leather craft, Kala Bhavana batik
Craft Type
Wax-resist (batik) dyeing on cloth and leather, and leather craft
Practising Community
Artisan families and cooperatives around Shantiniketan, several with roots in the Visva-Bharati crafts programme; Rishi and Rajbanshi leatherworkers
Materials
Cotton and silk cloth; paraffin and beeswax for the batik resist; naphthol, reactive and other dyes; and vegetable-tanned goat and buffalo leather, leather dyes, tooling and stamping tools, and finishing lacquer.
Known For
Batik sarees, stoles and yardage, and Shantiniketan leather bags, purses, folders and wallets with batik and tooled patterns
Where It's Made
Shantiniketan and Bolpur in Birbhum district, West Bengal, around Visva-Bharati University
Time to Create
Days to a week per batik length; days per leather bag
GI Status
Shantiniketan Leather Goods is a registered GI of West Bengal
Process Steps
Preparing the base
Cotton or silk is washed for batik; for leather goods, vegetable-tanned hide is cut and the bag or accessory is stitched up.
Applying the wax
Molten wax is applied with a brush, block or canting over the areas that are to stay the current colour.
Cracking the wax
The waxed surface is flexed so the wax fractures in fine lines that dye will seep into.
Dyeing
The cloth or leather is dyed; the wax resists the colour except where it has cracked.
De-waxing
The wax is removed by boiling (cloth) or gentle heating and scraping (leather).
Repeating and detailing
The wax-dye cycle repeats for further colours; leather may also be tooled, stamped and hand-painted with folk figures.
Finishing
Cloth is washed and pressed; leather is conditioned and given a protective lacquer coat, and fittings are added.
Technique Glossary
Batik
A wax-resist dyeing method in which molten wax blocks dye from selected areas of cloth or leather.
Canting (tjanting)
A small spouted tool for drawing fine lines of hot wax freehand.
Crackle
The network of thin dyed lines formed where the wax resist fractures before dyeing.
Vegetable tanning
Curing hide with plant tannins, giving a firm, warm-toned leather that takes tooling and dye well.
Tooling
Pressing and cutting a design into dampened leather with blunt and bladed tools.
Kala Bhavana / Sriniketan
The Visva-Bharati art school and rural-reconstruction centre where the crafts were developed.
Folk-motif painting
Hand-painting tribal and Bengali folk figures onto the leather surface.
A Craft Through Time
Early 20th century
Tagore's village industry
Visva-Bharati's art school and Sriniketan centre develop batik and designed leatherwork as part of a self-reliant village-industry programme.
Mid-20th century
Spread to the villages
The crafts move from the school into surrounding village cooperatives and family workshops.
Late 20th century
A recognised craft belt
Shantiniketan batik and leather goods become known nationally and are marketed through fairs and emporia.
2000s
Geographical Indication
Shantiniketan Leather Goods is registered as a GI of West Bengal.
21st century
Fashion and export
Batik textiles and Shantiniketan leather bags supply Indian retail and export buyers.
Present
A craft town
Batik and leather workshops around Shantiniketan and Bolpur continue the crafts born of Tagore's school.
Did You Know?
Shantiniketan's leather bags are dyed with the same wax-resist batik technique used on cloth — wax is drawn onto the finished leather, the piece is dipped in dye, and the wax keeps the pattern.
Every craft has a story. Every story begins with tradition.