Saturday, May 18, 2013

Ancient craftsmanship..



Block printing has been practised all over India since the 12th century, when the craft flourished due to royal patronage. Traditionally each region has it own particular aesthetic including designs, and colour schemes. To explain it fast and easy( it's nothing but a fast and easy process) you can divide the process into 3 steps:

step one is carving the block of wood


these are just some examples of block prints that I have bought....

step 2 is the printing process


these two pictures are from Anokhis museum of hand printing book.

step 3 is the finishing process

The last stage can involve wrapping the fabric into newspaper so it wont stain on other colours, steaming and of course washing and ironing to set the colours. 

One of the first thing I bought where these place mats 

and the quilt you've seen before but it's also block printed


The art of Indian block print textiles is a labour-intensive, painstaking process that has survived from ancient times to the present because of the beauty of the handmade products.


I would love to go to one of the districts, ex Sanganer that keep this tradition going.











1 comment:

  1. Hej Susanna,
    Mitt namn är Emelie Zetterblom, boende i Stockholm. Vilka härliga och stämningsfulla bilder du lägger upp i din blogg 😍
    Just nu är jag väldigt intresserad av indiska stämplar och letar efter platser, hemsidor där jag skulle kunna köpa dessa, tyvärr har jag ingen resa till Indien inbokad så det får bli genom kontakter eller hemsidor.
    Vet du möjligen vart jag skulle kunna fp tag på dessa indian printing blicks? Mönster, storlek och form har egentligen ingen betydelse, men inte allt för stora för att det ska gå och använda de till leran.

    Har du några tips?

    Mvh

    Emelie Zetterblom
    emelie.zetterblom@gmail.com
    070-7880718

    ReplyDelete