Kalamkari Paintings From South-East Andhra Pradesh- Romantic Valentine Gift For Her Kalamkari is painted on cloth in several parts of India. Machilipatnam and Srikalahasti in Andhra Pradesh are famed for Kalamkari paintings. This art form derives its name from ‘kalam’ or pen, which is used to trace outlines patterns and images. The Kalamkari technique involves drawing outlines with burnt tamarind twigs dipped in molasses and iron fillings. The vegetables dyes of deep shades are used to create religious scenes. The final effect comes with repeating the process of coloring. The uniqueness of these painting is that no two panels are similar. Vegetable and mineral pigments are used to create these paintings. The Kalamkari art of painting undergoes a laborious, slow process of resist - dyeing and hand printing. Many stages have to complete before the results is obtained. Unlike other styles of painting, Kalamkari painting demands a lot of treatment before and after the painting is complete on the cotton fabric. Depending on the treatment of cloth, or quality of the mordant, colors change accordingly. Every step from soaking of the cloth, to sketching the outlines to washing and drying the cloth, is done carefully and correctly. The artists believe in using natural dyes, extracted from bark, flower and root. One would be stunned to know that the colour red is obtained by using the Indian madder root, yellow from the pomegranate seed or even mango bark, and black from myrobalam fruit. The process used for both schools of Kalamkari painting is more or less the same. The only major difference is that Srikalahasti paintings depend entirely on the brush-like pen whereas the Masulipatnam style uses block-printing procedures. The process done in Srikalahasti is more tedious. The cloth is treated and washed twice, and two or three times alum is painted.