What’s so special about Hand Block Printing and why do we think it is great?
Great Product Experience
The Hand Block Print line represents the ultimate in luxury, promising a great and unique experience where every design is printed by expert artisans. The process, as we describe below, creates legitimate pieces of art, polar opposites to the mass-produced goods made on a shop floor with whirring machines. This difference gives our Hand Block Print line a deeper character and provides them with more of an imprint of life.
Provides sustainable livelihood to unorganized artisans
The traditional Hand Block Printing process, which we employ, has been passed from generation to generation. It is complex and requires many artisans and craftsmen to come together to deliver.
Through our products, we are keeping the traditions alive along with ensuring that the artisans are able to continue their unique traditions by creating demand for their art.
Helps the environment
The process is greener due to its extremely low power consumption as it relies almost completely on human craftsmanship. There is no utilization of heavy machinery which can contribute to power production related pollution, noise pollution and other associated adverse ecological effects.
How do these intricately designed products get created? Well, it is a cool journey...
Design
The process starts with our designers creating unique designs for you. There is a very extensive, deep and colorful history of hand block printing. Our designers balance tradition and modern design aspects to create contemporary designs that are rooted in tradition.
Wood Block Carving
Exclusively done by hand, an expert wood carving artisan(s) starts with the outline block and works his way through the blocks corresponding to each color. Simple designs require only three blocks, however, complex designs with several colors may require more than twenty five wooden blocks. It requires extraordinary skill to carve each wooden block and it has been passed from generation to generation.
Readying Blocks for Printing
To prevent warping of the wood from the moisture picked up during the printing process, the blocks of wood are cured by immersing them in oil, typically mustard oil, for several days before being left to drain for several additional days.
Dye Preparation
There are several types of dyes such as pigment based dyes, rapid fast dyes, indigo sol vat dyes, discharge dyes etc. Depending upon the design requirements the right type of dye is chosen in the desired colors. Once colors are mixed and ready, they are poured into the dye pad, which is a specially prepared tray with layers of fibres to absorb and deliver the color on the wooden block’s carved design surface.
Block Printing
Finally, an experienced artisan expertly dips the wood block in the dye pad and presses the design onto the fabric. The outline is typically printed first followed by the inner colored sections. The artisan goes left to right printing the outline in a line and returns to print the subsequent line. This is repeated until entire area of the fabric is covered. Then the block with the inner colors is printed. The same process is repeated for all colors and design elements. The artisan uses purely his skill, sight and markers on the blocks to align the various printing layers to ensure that the motifs don’t break.
Drying, Curing and Finishing
Upon completion of the printing process, the fabric is dried and sent to be washed and cured. The washing process needs to align with the dyes used and is an important step to ensure color steadfastness. The fabric is then ironed, inspected and is ready to be stitched into the final products.
