Block Printing – a traditional fabric art, a revolutionary technique

Block printing – a traditional art that traditionally evolved from the rural areas of Gujarat and Rajasthan, has reached new levels of fine printing on large canvas fabrics like the saree. With the aid of the marvellous wonder, the hand-block, fabric printing has reached a new dimension.

Block Printing is a process by which designs are made on a fabric by printing them on it with the help of a block made for that purpose. Believed to have its origin in China, block printing has been in use around the world for quite some time.

Block Printing once upon a time practiced in rural hamlets on clothes like turbans, sarees, have come to see better days when the world has sat up to take notice. Tracings are made of designs, transferred by conventional means onto the block and then using them onto make good impressions on the fabric laid out in long lengths on flat surfaces. The flat printing surface being quite large, the impressions laid side by side and correctly would result in a continuous design such as a floral landscape or a continuous geometrical pattern, the length of the saree.

The limitation of Block printing lay in a small variety of designs and patterns that the block contained that could be impressed on the fabric. Though quickly done and simple in method of doing, sufficient weight has to be applied uniformly on the block to get an even impression of the design to be transferred. Being large the dipping in colour had to be carefully done to avoid dripping and spoiling the fabric to be printed.

To save time and for easy handling Hand block printing was invented. It is a revolution of sorts which offers the advantages of little effort, maneuverability, lack of wastage of colour, uniform application, multi-variant designs on the same fabric and the greatest advantage of all, miniature designs replicated sharp and distinct on the fabric.

Hand block printing is practised in India mainly for Sarees and dress materials. Hand block printing is popular on account of its simplicity and ease of execution since the prints on the Sarees are sharp, accurate and provide finely detailed results. It is still a popular way of printing in Gujarat and Rajasthan on account of the fine and intricate designs in use in those regions.

The blocks used for the printing are made of wood, well planed and smoothly flat. Made of Pear wood, plane wood or sycamore, they are two to three inches thick, of different sizes and re-inforced by two or more wood pieces of deal or pine. The different pieces or blocks are pieced together in grooves to fit snugly in each other and glued together. The fabric for the prints is laid out on flat tables and the hand block printing done.

Earlier dyes used were natural and vegetable colours. But today with synthetic dyes easily available, much cheaper comparatively and easy in usage, they are widely preferred. The construction of the hand block is filled with metal pieces to allow for very small detailing to be etched in the block. So small stars and very minute designs otherwise not possible, are available for beautification of the fabric.

The Saree is covered with intricate Butta and other motifs. Flowers, fruits, trees, birds, geometrical designs and figurative pattern are some of the popular motifs in block printed sarees. Block prints on various fabrics like pure cotton, pure silk, crepe, georgette, chiffon and super net make them look elegant.

Block prints are the order of the day when it comes to handlooms. There is no dearth of designs, no scarcity of patterns, no lack of ideas, just new creations that seem fresh. patterns, designs, eye-catching motifs, combinations of these in different ways, free hand drawings, images and a whole lot of ready to be used depictions on paper that have to be translated into wooden blocks - etched out or carved out.

In fact the conventional hand block has revolutionized prints to such an extent that there is no dearth or want of fresh schemes. Permutations and combinations are innumerable with so many parameters involved that no two designs have very close similarities. Add color as a parameter and the possibilities are immense. No wonder that the market has hardly got fed up with what is churned out. Over and above there is the possibility of detailing in sharp miniature making the options endless. In fact the variety available is simply mind-boggling.

The practitioners of block printing are simple folk, the outcomes of their efforts, extremely outstanding abstract patterns. In fact the ease of hand block printing allows multiple variations of design and pattern on the same saree. There are instances of 50 plus different patterns printed at varied angles in different positions and varying block sizes on the same saree.

Unnati Silk Prints Pvt.Ltd., manufacturer, wholesaler, retailer of genuine handlooms since 1981. Provider of Indian ethnic varieties in sarees, salwar kameez, Kurtas and kurtis, ethnic essentials and special Indo western apparel. Prices are attractive wholesale and retail, dispatch is within 24 hours, free domestic retail, worldwide express shipping.

UNNATI SILK PRINTS PVT. LTD, Satyabhama Complex, Bhagyanagar Colony, Kukatpally. Hyderabad-500072, Andhra Pradesh - INDIA. 040-69590000.

Website: http://www.unnatisilks.com/