Hand Block Print Fabric – A Uniqueness of Artisan Textiles

Rajasthan is the very well known destination of India, mostly because it is included in the “The Golden Triangle”. Jaipur is the third stop in said “Triangle”. It is also very well known as the “Pink City” of India as there are much pink building and pink streets you will find in Jaipur. But it is also the large quantity of the textile art can be found here – Specifically, hand block print fabric.

How Hand Block Print Fabric Designs?

Hand Block Print Fabric design is very unique and no one can say exactly when and how the art of textile block printing arose. It was probably a creeping development process. Block printing is a process in which motifs are carved in wooden blocks. Several wooden block motifs are dipped one after the other in colors and printed by hand on the respective layer of fabric. Up to 10 block motifs with as many colors can be necessary to obtain a final image or pattern.

Printing on fabrics is an extremely labor-intensive craft. First, the pushbuttons are made. For this purpose, experienced masters carve complicated patterns into handy teak wood pieces.

Then the fabric has to be prepared. For this purpose, the naked fabrics, fresh from the weaving, are washed in water, which is mixed with soda, caustic, and castor oil. This is followed by several rinses in clear water. Through this process, the fabric is somewhat absorbed and becomes more receptive to the color.

Blockprint JaipurFinally, the printer goes to the factory. The wooden stamps are either dipped in vegetable or chemical dye baths and are pressed onto the stretched fabric web at regular intervals. In order to achieve a multifaceted, colorful pattern, many pressure sequences with different stamps are necessary. This work requires a lot of experience, practice, and extreme accuracy. For, if only one of the print patterns shifts, the harmony, and uniformity of the overall result is compromised and the fabric may become worthless under certain circumstances.

There is a chance that hand block printing on fabrics may have practiced in an early period. However, are very skilled as the Rajashthanis, and forage, in ornaments weaving and other branches of fabric art, there seems to be no direct evidence of their handles so comprehensive to the beautification of textiles.

So, Hand Block Print Fabric by nature, hand-done and it is the natural part of the process.