Artisans in Jaipur, India
The tradition of block printing in India dates back over 350 years. The technique begins with an artisan who carves each pattern design into a block of wood by hand. Meanwhile the fabric is soaked in an all-natural mordant, then sun dried.
Once the fabric is ready, another artisan prints the yardage by dipping the carved block in the dye colour and then stamping the block on the fabric until the pattern is complete on the yardage. In some cases a mud mixture called dabu is used for resist printing.
These processes are repeated for each color of the design. Once finished with printing, the fabric is boiled, washed, and laid out to dry in the desert sun.
