It has been an enchanting journey. Our love of Rajasthan’s heritage block printing craft translated into multiple design workshops and retails stores.
Gulab Chand – An Enchanting Journey
It has been an enchanting journey. Our love of Rajasthan’s heritage block printing craft translated into multiple design workshops and retails stores.
We have been able passionately celebrating the art hand-block printing, an endearing traditional craft.
At Gulab, the artisans we work with are masters of their craft, whether it be block carving, washing, printing, dying, or using dabu (resist) paste. Their skills have been developed not over the years, but through generations. Because block printing is such a detailed process, it requires many hands and hearts to create a single textile. In Jaipur, we bring you the finest block printing designer clothing.
Our chippas (artists/printers)continue day after day to stamp lengths of cotton fabric with color using hand-carved wood blocks. They were taught this trade by their parents, who were, in turn, taught by theirs — each generation working almost exactly as the one before, going back at least 300 years.
Block Printing – A Riveting Saga
The traditional process of hand block printing on textiles, with rich natural colors, has been practiced in Rajasthan for around 500 years.
Block printing was introduced to the Jaipur region of Rajasthan by the Chhipa community. This community was originally located in Bagru Village, an area now famous for its vegetable dye and mud resist (dabu) block prints.
It was in Indian subcontinent where hand-blocked fabric reached its highest visual expression. Indians possessed unparalleled expertise in the secrets of natural plant dyes, particularly with mordants (metallic salts that both create color and allow it to adhere to fabric). A kind of mud resist-printing, called dabu, which allows areas of a design to be reserved from dye, also flourished here.
A series of combinations of mordant and resist stamping and dyeing enabled Indian printers to create uniquely complex designs. Between outside influences and the diversity of the subcontinent’s own indigenous communities and tribes, India has yielded one of the most magnificent pattern vocabularies ever.
The art of block printing has been passed down for generations within families and communities and has branched out in recent decades to other regions such as Sanganer, just South of Jaipur. In traditional Bagru style block printing, the ‘recipes’ for the traditional plant-based dyes are developed within each family and kept alive from generation to generation. The colors are dependent on the quality of the plants, the water and skill and knowledge of the printing masters. In more recent forms of block printing, such as those practiced in Sanganer, colors are mixed using AZO free pigment dyes.
The Captivating Process
Block Carving
A print starts with the design, drawn on paper and carved into the Sheesham wood block. Designs are meticulously carved by hand into the blocks which are approximately 18-25 cm across. The physical block is the design for a single repeat which is then stamped in rows across the fabric. Each color in the design is carved into a separate block.
The outline block or ‘rekh’, is the most intricate and usually stamped first; it is typically the outline for a floral or lattice type design. Next comes the fill block or ‘datta’ and possibly the ground color block or ‘gud’ depending on the color scheme used. Block carving is in itself an art requiring years of apprenticeship to gain mastery and is done entirely by hand.
Color Mixing-Preparing the Dyes
Once the blocks are carved, the master printer prepares the colors which will be used in printing. The colors are then poured into wooden trays and the blocks stamped in the color each time, then stamped onto the fabric to form the repeat pattern. The colors shown are AZO free, eco-friendly synthetic colors which are used in Sanganer printing.
Printing Process
Each color pattern is stamped individually onto the fabric; the
process takes skill and time, as the pattern must be stamped repeatedly across the fabric, color by color. The slight human irregularities — inevitable in handwork — create the artistic effect emblematic of block prints. The final outcome of this intricate labor is a timeless beauty, and every garment made from this fabric is unique.
The printing master must carefully align each block as he prints, using the ‘guide’ carved on the left edge of the block as his marker. Each printer has a slightly different style which is considered his ‘signature’ look. The printing master must then follow the same pattern of aligning the blocks with each color layered on to the design. The subtle gaps and overlaps are a beautiful reminder of the hand work and give block printing it’s iconic look. All prints exemplify this aesthetic and have a subtle pattern of light/dark across the design.
The block printing villages are know for their rhythmic ‘tock-tock’ sound of the block printer hitting the wood block to ‘stamp’ the pattern. It is an enchanting sound which echoes through the village and is a reminder of the significance of artisan work.
The Style
The original Bagru style printing traditionally used natural vegetable dyes and mud resist techniques to print on cottons and silks. Traditional Bagru designs reflect nature in floral, leaf and geometric motifs. Later techniques incorporated Persian motifs and developed block printing into a highly intricate style.
Hand block printing now also extends to Jaipur and Sanganer with the use of AZO-free, synthetic dyes (such as pigment and indigo sol) and different styles of printing.
Printing Process
Each color pattern is stamped individually onto the fabric; the
process takes skill and time, as the pattern must be stamped repeatedly across the fabric, color by color. The slight human irregularities — inevitable in handwork — create the artistic effect emblematic of block prints. The final outcome of this intricate labor is a timeless beauty, and every garment made from this fabric is unique.
The printing master must carefully align each block as he prints, using the ‘guide’ carved on the left edge of the block as his marker. Each printer has a slightly different style which is considered his ‘signature’ look. The printing master must then follow the same pattern of aligning the blocks with each color layered on to the design. The subtle gaps and overlaps are a beautiful reminder of the hand work and give block printing it’s iconic look. All prints exemplify this aesthetic and have a subtle pattern of light/dark across the design.
The block printing villages are know for their rhythmic ‘tock-tock’ sound of the block printer hitting the wood block to ‘stamp’ the pattern. It is an enchanting sound which echoes through the village and is a reminder of the significance of artisan work.
The Style
The original Bagru style printing traditionally used natural vegetable dyes and mud resist techniques to print on cottons and silks. Traditional Bagru designs reflect nature in floral, leaf and geometric motifs. Later techniques incorporated Persian motifs and developed block printing into a highly intricate style.
Hand block printing now also extends to Jaipur and Sanganer with the use of AZO-free, synthetic dyes (such as pigment and indigo sol) and different styles of printing.