Tamarind - crafts

Interestingly, tamarind has been employed in various forms of South Asian craftwork. The seeds, leaves and wood have been used in textile dyeing, as a glue, and as a building and carving material. The tamarind tree has also been recorded as a host of the lac insect.

Use in dyeing

A photograph of tamarind pulp used in dyeing housed in Kew's Economic Botany Collection.
Image: This pulp from tamarind fruit was collected for its use in dyeing fabrics.

Some traditional cloth dyeing techniques use tamarind. A paste of sticky tamarind seeds might be smeared on the fabric before dipping it in a mordant in preparation for dyeing. In Jorhat in Assam, India, cloth may be prepared for dyeing by boiling in water with tamarind leaves. This deepens and prolongs the colour of the cloth.


Gum

Tamarind is sometimes used to make patachitras. These are folk paintings from Orissa that are applied to fabrics rather than paper. Ground tamarind seed is mixed with water and boiled down to a thick gum. This is spread across the cloth to prepare the surface for painting and to prevent moisture getting into the cloth. The surface is then covered with chalkstone and tamarind seed powder, and polished using a palm leaf mat and stones. Tamarind gum is also used when patching holes in the cloth, to stick pieces of cloth together for larger paintings, or to join two layers of cloth together for a thicker surface.

Ground tamarind seeds contain compounds called polysaccharides which can be used as a sizing agent to coat textile yarns to make them stiffer and stronger. During World War II, tamarind seeds were ground down and roasted to make tamarind kernel powder which was used as a sizing agent for textiles like jute and cotton.

A paste of tamarind seeds is also used to join the limbs of wooden toys made in Andhra Pradesh. The acidic tamarind fruit pulp is useful for polishing metal.

Wood

Tamarind wood can be made into agricultural tools and furniture. It is also suitable for making printing blocks and tent pegs. In south India is also used in construction.