Location Scout Part II: Resist block printing


Exhibitions
February 12, 2015
Carved face of a wooden block used for printing textiles.
Carved face of a wooden block used for printing textiles. © Rosie Wanek

After a hurried fortnight of preparing storyboards and briefing the film crew, they have now been packed onto their flights and are off to India to capture some of the remarkable textile processes that I saw on my reccie trip in January.   I visited Kaladera in Rajasthan, looking particularly for Indigo dyeing workshops.  There I was introduced to three brothers each involved in producing different types of indigo-dyed fabrics.  Our film crew will be recording the process of dyeing plain cloth with Indigo, but I also had the chance to visit the workshop which deals with resist block printed indigo textiles.

Rajasthan is famous for its block printed textiles.  They are created using carved wooden printing blocks that are inked and pressed by hand directly onto the fabric.  For more complex, multi-coloured designs, multiple rounds of printing are required using sets of blocks.  Each block in the set carries a different part of the design, and colour, and is carved to align exactly with the previous.  This process is most suitable for creating designs with a pale ground, such as this example from the V&A collections:

Block printed textile from the V&A collections. Wrapped Garment, Cotton, woven and printed, ca. 1855-1879, Sanganer India, V&A.4497
Block printed cotton textile from the V&A collections. ca. 1855-1879, Sanganer India, V&A.4497

The workshops I visited however specialise in layering up block printing, resist block printing and indigo dyeing processes to create designs that have a generally darker, indigo ground, with lighter and even white areas.  They showed me how they make fabrics like the one pictured below.

Resist block printed cotton dyed with Indigo.
Resist block printed cotton dyed with Indigo. © Rosie Wanek

The first stage is to block-print the outline of flowers using ink:

First layer of block printing outlining the design
First layer of block printing outlining the design © Rosie Wanek

A resist paste is then mixed from lime, gum and a type of sticky clay naturally occurring in the bottom of ponds and river beds.  This mix is then printed onto top of the design using a separate block which applies the resist mix only to the areas that are to remain white.

Block printing the resist mix
Block printing the resist mix. © Rosie Wanek
Permanent indigo vat in the front yard where the fabrics are dyed.
Permanent indigo vat in the front yard where the fabrics are dyed. © Rosie Wanek

 

The fabric is then dusted with the chaff from wheat to prevent the areas with resist mix sticking to one another if the fabric is crumpled or folded.   The resist is stretched out in the courtyard to dry.  Then the fabric is dyed with indigo so it turns blue blue except where the resist mix has been applied to the fabric.  It will be dyed again to intensify the blue.  However before that happens, another layer of resist is applied to areas where the existing shade of blue is desired.

 

Below you can see the fabric after after both layers of resist have been applied but before the final dye dip is complete:

Before the final indigo dip.
Before the final indigo dip. © Rosie Wanek
Fabric stretched out in the courtyard to allow the resist mix to dry prior to the final dye dip.
Fabric stretched out in the courtyard to allow the resist mix to dry prior to the final dye dip. © Rosie Wanek

 

Fabric being folded and stacked into bales for collection.
Fabric being folded and stacked into bales for collection. © Rosie Wanek

 

Finally the fabric is washed clean of excess dye and the resist and wheat chaff, folded and baled up for collection.

There are many other processes that reply on protecting the fabric from dye used in Indian textile making and we will be featuring a number in the exhibition.  You can learn more about them here.

Block printing workshops like this work to designs requested by garment manufacturers and textile merchants.  These are most often traditional designs, but I was also delighted to find some very cute contemporary designs in evidence.

 

 

Contemporary block print design of polar bears
Block printed design featuring polar bears. © Rosie Wanek
Printing block for a cupcake design
Printing block for a cupcake design. © Rosie Wanek

About the author


Exhibitions
February 12, 2015

I am a Senior Exhibitions Coordinator which means that I have a hand in the delivery of a wide variety of exhibitions showing at South Kensington and on tour to...

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Tharangini block printing studio in Bangalore is where we will be going this November, please contact me for further details to explore traditional Indian craft through a hands on learning experience.
Facebook : Indian Crafts Study Trips
Instagram : Indiancraftstudy

hi
associate with us for workshop on hand block prints & vegetable dyes , workshop on mud resist prints with indigo dye . we are bagru base company and printed .
jaitexart.jaipur, sanganer & bagru india hemant sethia

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