Ok so we read in our previous article about the Traditional Indian Wood Block Printing. I hope that everyone enjoyed it, as it is a beautiful technique of Manual Textile printing. The perfection of the machines can never beat the imperfections and the beauty of Handcrafted Textiles. The effort put by the people altogether for a small piece of a garment is incomparable.
There we discussed about the various techniques of printing methods. Basically there are three different techniques, Direct Printing, Discharge Printing and Resist dying. A fabric is first washed and bleached to remove any dirt particle, oil or stains so that it could take the dyes properly and evenly while printing. Sometimes it is even dyed if one wants a colored background. Lets have a look at them in detail…..
DIRECT PRINTING
Direct printing, in which colorants containing dyes, thickeners, and the mordants or substances necessary for fixing the colour on the cloth are printed in the desired pattern directly to the cloth. In short, the design and colors are directly applied to the fabric through the desired medium, in this case it’s wooden block.
DISCHARGE PRINTING
This print is generally done when you have to print onto dark backgrounds. It is useful when one wants to have dark colors as a background. The chemical present in the paste actually bleaches out the color where it is put, and brings out a lighter version of the same color or white color as a result. One can develop designs using wooden blocks to create patterns in the same way, as one does normal block print with pigment dyes.
RESIST DYING
A kind of resist paste is made by using wax, mud paste etc. to avoid the color to reach those areas where this paste is used. The wooden block takes this paste like dyes and prints the designs to the areas where background color is to be kept as it, in its natural form. The rest of the cloth is dyed in a color. The dye does not penetrate the area where the resist was patterned. After washing the resist washes off, leaving behind the beautiful designs printed.
Image Reference : Pinterest
Interested in block painting materials and ideas