The instrument used, known as a 'kalem', is in fact a brush which the master printer employs with consummate skill as if writing with a pencil. Production of such hand-printed textiles commences with the application of designs previously drawn on paper to a piece of cloth stretched over a frame. The outlines are first traced using only a brush, and the areas to be colored are then filled in, exactly as if making a painting. Prints of this type are also known as 'hand-prints'. In the combined technique, the outlines are first printed on the cloth with a wooden mold, and the colors then filled in with a brush. In block-printing both the black outlines and the colored areas are applied to the cloth using appropriate molds. Such designs are carved in wooden molds by master printers using special knives. The beauty and refinement of the surviving examples of such molds attest to the high level of expertise attained in this art during the period. Formerly natural dyes were used on hand-printed textiles for applying the colors, which are laden with symbolic meaning. Lovely reds and yellows, extracted from various plants and insects, were transmitted to the cloth in a wide variety of designs.