Crafts & Skills

    Variety of  crafts and skills used for producing our beautiful hand crafted products 

Hand Block Printing

India has always been renowned   for its printed and dyed cotton since the 12^th century. The unique art of hand block   printing employs skilfully hand carved wooden blocks to print designs or patterns on a fabric by hand. Hand block printing though a simple process requires a lot of skills and expertise. The process is   painstaking and time consuming, but the result is always unique and beautiful.

The wooden Block:

Blocks used for block printing are made out of wood and hand carved by skilled crafts men. The blocks called ‘bunta’ come in various designs and sizes. The underside of the block has a design etched on it. Each block has a wooden handle and two to three cylindrical holes drilled into the block for free air passage and also to allow release of excess printing paste.

Block Printing  Process :

The ideal fabric for printing are of natural fabrics such as cotton and silk.

Preparation:

First of all the fabric for printing has to be starched free as starched fabric cannot absorb the paint properly. If the fabric  needs dyeing,it is done before printing. The fabric for printing would then be stretched over a large printing table fastened with a pin on the

four corners

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Dyes:

In the olden days,vegetable dyes are mainly used for Block printing.But these days different dyes are used for printing.A skilled block printer needs to be an expert at colour mixing.An expert colour mixer can achieve the right colour by mixing tiny drops of different colours by hand.Pigment colours are the popular one these days as they can be kept for a longer time.

The Printing process:

The printing starts from left to right. The colour is evened out in the tray which is on a wooden trolley. The printing would start with the outline colour.  When the block is applied to the fabric, it is slammed hard with the fist on the back of the handle so that a good impression may register. A point on the block serves as a guide for the repeat impression, so that the whole effect is continuous and notdisjoined. 

If it is a multiple colour design,the  printer would again dip his second block in the colour  using the point or guide for a perfect registration to fill in the colour. The third colour if existent follows likewise. Skill is necessary for good printing since the colours need to dovetail into the design to make it a composite whole

 Once the printing is done, the printed   fabrics are either dried out in the sun or left to dry indoors. This is part of the fixing process.

Once the colours are fixed, the fabric is ready fo use

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For beautiful hand block printed products, Zodingdi ‘fair trade fashion and home accessories’ stock their own range of beautiful Organic cotton beddings and travel accessories such as wash bags,totes etc   www.zodingdi.co.uk