Block Print

Block printing is the oldest way of putting a repeating pattern onto finished cloth: a craftsman carves a design in relief into a wooden block, charges it with dye, and stamps it across the fabric, registering each impression to the last by eye and by small guide pins. The hand-block printing towns of Rajasthan, Bagru and Sanganer above all, built a tradition of small floral sprigs, the buti, and dense field patterns that fed the Indian printed-cotton trade and the European taste for calico and chintz. Slower and subtler than the engraved rollers that industrialized printing, it survives as a prized craft.