Shekhawati, Rajasthan, India

Hand Block Printing

Carved wooden blocks, stamped by hand and by eye, repeated down the length of a cloth without a guide.

Each block is carved from seasoned teak or sheesham wood, often by a separate family of carvers working generations behind the printers who use them.

Printers align each stamp by eye against the last, building up a pattern with small, human inconsistencies that a machine print wouldn't have.

Hand Block Printing in progress