2024 trip to India

An overdue trip to the home of block printing.

It's the end of February and we've just returned home from a wonderful 10-day trip to India, the home of block printing. It's been a long overdue trip since we haven't visited since Jan 2020 (pre covid) and being honest we were all slightly apprehensive. None of us had travelled much since our last trip, and the idea of a long-haul flight wasn't very appealing, we also wondered how much things might have changed in the past 4 years. As soon as we reached Jaipur the doubts subsided, and it felt like we were home again. In comparison to Delhi, Jaipur feels bright and breezy. The sun was shining, trees and flowers line the streets and familiar sights filled us with comfort.

 

Our first few days in Jaipur...

We had a relaxing introduction back into the Pink City, we spent our first day visiting all our favourite shops in Jaipur. Not only can you find beautiful block printed fabrics, but it’s also a great source of inspiration for new colours and pattern ideas. You'll find the list of our favourite stores to visit on our Indian Travel Guide *coming soon*

The following day we had an early start to visit the Phool Mandi which is Jaipur's flower market. There was such a fantastic array of colours and scents, it was well worth the early start. Whilst most of the city still slept, we had a chance to wander around the quiet streets within the City Palace.

 

pictures from around Jaipur

Block printing in Bagru

If you're wanting to see block printing in action, you'll find printing workshops dotted all around India. But if you're looking for the real home of block printing you need to take a trip to Bagru. On the outskirts of Jaipur, you'll find that nearly every house and workshop will be involved in some part of a block printed fabric's journey. Whether it's block carving or preparing  fabric for printing, printing, washing, ironing, or packaging the work is shared around the residents of Bagru.

 

In the centre of the village you'll find the drying fields. A piece of land that is shared by everyone in Bagru to dry dyed and printed fabric. The ground remains permanently coloured even once the fabric has been removed.

Every time we visit India, we spend several days in Bagru, printing, learning, and working alongside the master block printers learning more and more about this ancient craft.

Dabu printing

We spent two days in Bagru, on our first day we Dabu printed. This is the process of printing with a mud and limestone mixture, which works as a resist. After printing with the mud, when it's still wet you sprinkle a fine sawdust mixture over the top which binds to the mud and forms a resist compound.

The mud printed fabric is left to dry in the sun, once hardened the fabric is dipped in the indigo vat.  

The fabric will be dipped and dried several times which will deepen the colour each time. Finally, the fabric is washed to remove the mud and sawdust, Where the mud sat on the fabric, the Indigo was not able to penetrate, leaving you with lovely white prints and dark blue fabric.

dabu printing

We spent two days in Bagru, on our first day we Dabu printed. This is the process of printing with a mud and limestone mixture, which works as a resist. After printing with the mud, when it's still wet you sprinkle a fine sawdust mixture over the top which binds to the mud and forms a resist compound.

The mud printed fabric is left to dry in the sun, once hardened the fabric is dipped in the indigo vat.  

The fabric will be dipped and dried several times which will deepen the colour each time. Finally, the fabric is washed to remove the mud and sawdust, Where the mud sat on the fabric, the Indigo was not able to penetrate, leaving you with lovely white prints and dark blue fabric.

Pigment printing

On our second day in Bagru we moved onto coloured pigment printing. Similar to the bright colours of paint we use at home, the paint is made using a pigment and a binder, the liquid is then poured into trays covered with a wire mesh and fabric. To apply the paint, you tap the printing block onto the fabric in the paint tray. When printing with large handled blocks this is much quicker than applying the paint with a sponge, a master printer can print hundreds of meters a day so efficiency is key.

Our aim on this trip was to further our knowledge on printing with 2/ 3 and even 4 colour block prints. Learning important techniques from the master printers which we can bring back home and share with our customers and guests on our workshops.

Visiting our block carvers

A very important part of our trip was visiting the carvers we work alongside. It had been 4 years since we'd been to India, so several days of our trip were dedicated to visiting these artisans.

 

What makes our connection to India so strong, is that we aren't just working with artisans we've found online, our personal relationships with the carvers and their families are at the forefront of our business and we work extremely hard to maintain these relationships.

 

We started working with one group of carvers in 2017 and our business has enabled them to start working on a new workshop and in time they will build living accommodation above.

We are so proud to have been able to support their venture and to really see how supporting each other we are spreading the joy of creativity.

Although not yet finished the workshop is now in daily use and was beautifully decorated with balloons and streamers to welcome us, such a joyous occasion!

 
visiting our block carvers

A very important part of our trip was visiting the carvers we work alongside. It had been 4 years since we'd been to India, so several days of our trip was dedicated to visiting these artisans.

 

What makes our connection to India so strong, is that we aren't just working with artisans we've found online, our personal relationships with the carvers and their families are at the forefront of our business and we work extremely hard to maintain these relationships.

 

One of our carvers who we first started working with in 2017, in the last 4 years he has been able to build his own workshop which we visited for the first time, and we were able to see in person what a difference our work with them makes. Even though the workshop is not quite complete yet, it was decorated with ballons and streamers for our arrival.

 

 

An extremely exciting part of our trip to the carvers’ villages was meeting Aruna, a female block carver (you don't come across these very often). Since starting our business with India it's been very important that we have developed our relationships with the carvers and in fact we are now supporting more than 40 families and keeping the world of block carving alive and thriving.

 

Our timing coincided perfectly with seeing the blocks from our collaboration with Paula The Crafty Lass in production, it was wonderful seeing Paula's designs coming to life.

 

We had a fantastic trip, it was wonderful to be back in India, we are already looking forward to returning in Jan 2025. Thank you for following and allowing us to share our trip with you. Look out for details of a possible tour we will be arranging in February 2025!

We'll share more pictures from our trip on our social media channels over the coming months.

Tess, Maggie, Anna & Annabel x

traditional Indian printing blocks