After our trip to Jaipur in October, we thought you might like to know a bit more about the traditional art of block printing. Mossberry stocks products from Anokhi (clothes, gifts and homewares) who make the most wonderful use of this technique, the reason we picked Anokhi as one of our suppliers is because for more than 30 years, Anokhi’s ideals have been those of conservation and development, through the input of design, marketing and project funding. The Company is well known as an alternative role model for good business practices, and the ongoing revival of traditional textile skills.
While we were in the Jaipur area we went to see a variety of farms and workshops.
BAGRU: Bagru lying at the distance of 35km from Jaipur has no fort or palace or even their ruins, but boasts of something which is perhaps more beautiful. Block printing. Anyone interested in textile printing could easily walk into Chippa Mohalla (printers’ quarter) beside the Sanjaria River , where about three dozen families make themselves busy with dyes and blocks. These craftsmen have kept the three-centuries-old tradition of block printing alive and kicking in Rajasthan. and they are completely eco-friendly; they first treat the cloth with Fuller’s earth got from the riverside and then soak it in haldi (turmeric) water to get the traditional cream coloured background. Only then do they stamp the cloth with beautifully patterned blocks of wood using natural dyes of earthy hues.
In fact Bagru’s craftspersons are among those few printers today who are still predominantly using traditional vegetable dyes. For example, blue is got from indigo, greens from indigo mixed with pomegranate rinds, red from madder root and yellow from turmeric.
