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Aakibbhai's
grandfather was a block
printer in Rapar, where his customers were Kanbi Patels
of the region. He mostly created sadla in red with black
and white patterns. But he moved to Dhamadka to be
closer to the better markets and raw materials of Anjar.
In Dhamadka, the family started using different colors
and creating ajrakh, and saris, dupattas, stoles, three
piece suits, and yardage for contemporary markets. After
the earth quake of 2001, they re-settled in Ajrakhpur.
Today his family goes to exhibitions in Delhi, Mumbai,
Bangalore, Hyderabad, Calcutta, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and
other cities and works on orders for clients such as Fabindia.
Aakib has been working for a year. He
believes that to be a good artisan one should have
patience and love for his craft, and he should work
hard. For good design, planning is necessary, he thinks.
He believes that the future of block
printing is good. He says, “If we implement new aspects
of block printing as per the demand of time and search
for new markets, the future of block printing will be
brighter.” Aakib wants to work in block printing on a
large scale. He wants to break the limitations of
natural colors and use new natural colors in ajrakh
which have not been possible til now. Aakib’s dream is
to begin his own and autonomous hand block print
business.
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