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HandBlockPrint
Carved teak, mineral colour, and a printer’s steady strike.
A wooden block, carved by hand, pressed by hand, one impression at a time. Every metre carries the faint drift of the human hand that made it. That drift is the point.
Hand block printing in Gujarat and Rajasthan is older than any of the tables it is done on. A pattern is drawn, then carved in reverse into seasoned teak. The printer dips the block into a tray of colour, sets it on the cloth by eye, and strikes it once with the heel of the hand. Then again, a fraction to the right, for as long as the cloth runs.
We print on hand-loomed and mill cotton, on linen and on silk, in traditional mineral and vegetable colours as well as fast modern pigments. Ajrakh-style resist prints in indigo and madder, fine Sanganeri florals, bold geometrics of our own design, and exact reproductions of a client’s artwork. Natural-dyed block print, as our catalogue has always put it, actually looks more beautiful with every wash.
After printing, the cloth is washed in open tanks, dried in the sun, and often printed again for a second and third colour. Nothing about it is quick. Everything about it shows.
What we make with it
- Bed linen & quilts
- Curtains & panels
- Table covers & linen
- Cushions
- Fabric by the metre
- Scarves
Made to order, to your design or ours. Ask for a sample.
Enquire about block print
