India #8 Block Printing

 March 19th

Apart from the cookery lesson, the only other item that I booked before coming to India was a tour of a block printing factory. The tour itself was fascinating. We got to hear about how the wooden blocks were made and then talked through the whole process of fabric printing from start to finish.

The cotton is pinned out on tables covered  in a layer of wadding. This ensures that there is a little give when the blocks are pressed down, resulting in a better coverage. The border is done first and, depending on the design, there can be many colours and different blocks involved. First the outline, then a different block for every colour used. Once the border is complete, the rest of the design is added using the same process. 

The dye is spread thinly onto a piece of fabric in a paint tray and the block pressed gently into the colour. It is then positioned carefully (with a very steady hand!), placed onto the cotton and then thumped twice before removal. The tray is on a table with castors and moves along the fabric with the worker.

The initial colours that you see are not always the final result. After washing and drying, the dye is fixed by dipping the printed fabric in sulphuric acid and nitrates. At this point the colours may change, revealing the final effect. A further washing and drying and the fabric is ready for use. 

2 thumps:

The border half coloured in:

Then came the fun part ........ our turn! We got to make our own scarves to take home as a souvenir. Lining up the blocks is obviously harder than the workers made it seem! :O)

Drying our scarves after the initial printing:

Into the sulphuric acid and nitrates to fix the dye:

Another wash and dry. The once yellow border is now red and what initially looked red/brown turned green :

The workers making quilts with some of the fabric. I wish that my machine quilting was as good!

Even R proudly wore his scarf for the rest of the holiday.  Leaving the factory, we drove by the Birla Mandir Temple, a beautiful Hindu Temple made of white marble:

Then on to the Albert Hall Museum:

The museum was quite interesting, although we arrived at the same time as a large school party, so decided to start at the top floor and work down to avoid them as much as possible.

Having exhausted the delights of the museum, we set off in search of lunch. Our first port of call was unexpectedly full - there appeared to be a prebooked party. Our second choice, 'Anokhi' was a fine replacement. We shared a plate of pitta bread and falafel, which was absolutely delicious and made a nice change. Ditto the vegan coffee cake to follow! In the queue to wash my hands, I fell into a conversation with a lady after I admired her block printed dress. I felt very knowledgeable about the process involved in its making! :O)

In the same building as the cafe was a brilliant bookshop called 'Crosswords'. Amazingly, all the books were in English and we spent a while happily browsing. I sat in a comfy chair by the window, watching the tuktuks outside as the sun got lower. It was remarkably peaceful and I could have stayed for hours. R bought a deck of cards - we normally remember to take one on holiday for the evenings but had forgotten this time - and L bought a copy of  'Bhagavad Gita'.

Then it was back to the hotel for a Planter's Punch ( rum, orange, pineapple, lemon, Angostura bitters). Not my favourite and a score of 2.5. This was our final cocktail of the holiday, so the winner was definitely the Gimlet!

Toodle pip for now. x