The art of Indian block print fabric is a labor-intensive, painstaking process that has survived from ancient times to the present because of the beauty of the handmade products. Scraps of cloth found in the ruins of Mohenjo Daro, an ancient city of the Indus Valley Civilization, provide evidence that this type of fabric decoration was practiced in India as long ago as 3000 BCE. The art flourished in the 12th century under the patronage of the rajas. The 17th century saw its revitalization. And still, here in the 21st century, block printing of fabric by hand is an art practiced by Indian artisans for the enjoyment of owners of those fabrics throughout the world.

The process takes time, team work and, especially, skill. The three main tools used by fabric printers are wooden blocks, fabric and dye. It can take five carvers up to three days to create an intricate design in a block of teak for use for printing. The printers may use up to 30 blocks to complete a design. Separate pieces of wood are required for each of the colors used in a design and it is not unusual to have four or five colors in a professional design. It can take twenty people, each doing a separate task, up to eight hours to prepare a single block printed garment. With all this, the results can only be unique.

The process begins with the wooden blocks. Wood carvers cut designs into blocks of different shapes and sizes. The top has a handle for the printers to grasp. Each one has two or three cylindrical holes through it to permit the passage of air and to allow excess dye to squeeze out. There are also various points carved into to the piece of wood which the printers use as placement indicators as they pick the block up and move it to the next patch of fabric. Each one is soaked in oil for one and one half to two weeks to soften the wood.

The next step in the process is the arrangement of the fabric. Workers stretch 24 layers of jute taut over a long rectangular table. The jute serves as a pad to provide resiliency to the printing surface. The workers secure the fabric to the jute pad with pins, keeping it tightly in place.

When the printers are ready to do the printing, they select from three approaches. In the first method, called discharge printing, the printer dyes the fabric first. Then the printer chemically removes the dye from the portions of the cloth which will take the design. The bleached sections are treated and then dye is reapplied to create the block print design. In the second method, also known as direct printing, the cloth is bleached, and then dyed whole. The background color remains as the printer proceeds to print designs onto the dyed fabric using the wooden blocks. Finally, in resist printing, the block is used, not to apply dye, but rather to apply an impermeable resist, which can be made of clay, resin or wax. When the cloth is dyed, the portions covered by the resist do not take the dye. But once resist has been removed, the design has been created in reverse.

Printing is done from left to right. When the printer is using the discharge or direct methods, the printer dips the block into the dye then presses it onto the fabric. The printer slams the back of the wood hard with the fist to create a clear impression. Then the printer moves the wood to the next portion of fabric to be dyed, using points on the block to serve as a guide for the placement of the block.

As they work, the printers pull a wooden cart bearing their tools along with them. The wooden blocks can be interchanged from one piece of fabric to another, creating different patterns. Custom designs and different colors can be used from one fabric to another, creating still more individual work.

Each color of a design is done by a different printer, coming behind the one before and repeating the process. The process requires teamwork, as each subsequent printer must place the block on the fabric accurately to create a beautiful, whole pattern.

Once the pattern is finished on the whole length of fabric, the piece is treated to fix the dyes. First, the fabric is dried in the sun. Once dried, the fabric is rolled in newspapers and steamed in special boilers. After steaming, the fabric is washed, dried in the sun again, and ironed. Each of these steps contributes to fixing the pigment and making the colors rich and vibrant.

And it seems to work. This process of block printing has been used for centuries and is still in vogue.