Woodblock printing
One thing has always been clear in our vision: to ground our work in the appreciation of traditional practices like handloom weaving and embroideries, while creating simple geometries in the designs.
We are now introducing woodblock printing or block printing, a technique for printing text, images or patterns on textiles using hand-carved wood blocks.
This technique used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China about 4,500 years ago, was turned it into a culturally distinct art form by Indian artisans since at least the 12th century.
Block printing involves carving the desired pattern in reverse on a piece of wood with a knife, the chisel, or sandpaper, and the block is then inked and printed it onto the fabric.
Our Creative Director Ritesh was inspired by this technique in his collection Eve and in the past few months he has researched how to perform block printing on cashmere. He also included field trips to local markets in Delhi to see how the artisans create the blocks from scratch. Being in Sweden, I miss these crucial steps of the creative process happening in Delhi but at the same time I'm grateful Ritesh is reporting with images and stories and that we keep the transoceanic discussions alive.
