We take great pride in our roots, and the choices we have made to engage, embrace and uplift the traditional artisans, as well as the art and craft forms of our country - from locally grown and sourced fibers, fabrics, dyes, accessories and other raw materials; to priceless ancient techniques and practices that India is blessed with.
We learnt and explored the traditional block printing technique ‘‘Discharge printing” with Tharangini Studios, Bangalore for our ‘Love from away’ collection. The 14-step extensive process is a culmination of different sustainable practices - chemical free inks/dyes, handmade, zero-waste, social and environmental impact. We will take you through the process:
It starts off with gum arabic and zinc ferment based being block printed onto the fabric.
The blocks are washed every now and then to maintain accuracy of the motifs.
The fabrics are then dried under natural sunlight.
Once they are fully dried they are wrapped along with newspapers to ensure they do not stick to each other. The fabric rolls are placed in a cylindrical steamer and made sure they are tightly closed.
A paste is made using flour to close the gap between the lid and the steamer. Little strips of muslin cloth are dipped into the same paste and are used to further seal the lid.
The steaming goes on for a couple of hours. Once the fabrics are taken out, they are dried and washed. Washed extensively to ensure there is no bleeding of the color/dye.
The fermented base acts as a natural bleach and displaces the base dye color and that’s how the polka dot prints are achieved.
