India Trip - January 2018

I have always loved block printing as a process, partly because of its similarities to screen printing. Both printing processes use flat, solid layers of colour to build up images. Block printing is generally used for printing pattern repeats, mainly onto fabric and involves intricately carved wooden blocks being dipped in ink then stamped onto the surface of the fabric. Both the carving of the wooden blocks and the printing of the blocks are traditional crafts passed from generation to generation and something that India is famous for and I’ve always wanted to learn more about the process.

Last year I started to design block prints of my own and worked with a fabric printer in Jaipur to turn these drawings into fabric products. I loved the process and was keen to work with more traditional printers and Jaipur is definitely one of the world’s printing capitals. After three years of working solidly and growing my business, I decided to take January this year off and go and visit Jaipur and learn more about the printing processes, meet the people I had been working with and have a little holiday! It was an amazing trip, and taught me so much - the printers I met had been honing their crafts for decades, having originally learnt from their parents and grandparents. It was incredibly inspiring and humbling, and one of the best things I have ever done. In addition to the block and screen fabric printers I have been working with over the past year, I also visited some amazing paper screen printers and papier mache artists and have been developing some exciting new products with them that I can’t wait to reveal this May. You can read more about the working relationships I have built here.

Three years ago I would never have believed that my little business could do the things it is now, and so the trip to India and partnerships I have formed really have been dreams coming true! Now where to next?! I'm thinking Mexico...