Village Craft

 These 4 block-prints are hand-printed using traditional village processes and all natural dyes. This process typically consists of several stages, including washing, dyeing and printing, and it's the repetition of these wet and dry, and hot and cold processes that result in such quality prints, earthy tones and vivid colours.

Our printer Deepak shared some photos of the making of these fabrics.

First, hand-loomed cotton is washed and scoured to break down any starch in the fabric, and mordanted to prepare for cotton for dying. Once dry the fabric is hand-printed using traditional wooden blocks. The printing is done on a 6m long table, which means the fabric is produced in length of 5-6m. Once the ink is dry, these lengths are left to bake in the sun, which helps to cure the dyes and fix the colour. 

After the curing process is finished the fabric is washed and heated which helps to fix the dyes and improve colourfastness. This rich red Batten stripe is printed using natural madder dye, from the madder root. The fabric is agitated in the water to removes any excess dye or mordants.

This is a labour intensive process that produces block prints in beautiful earthy hues. Click here to visit our block prints.