Dip and Press – A Journal to Turn Boring Fabrics into Elegant Delights

An attractive object is a joy forever.
This phrase comes into play whenever we encounter attractive fabrics of rich colours and patterns. Our Indian textile industry not only produces well woven fabrics but it has also played an instrumental role in beautifying them by various ancient techniques. Several of these styles like hand block printing, dyeing and paintings have been used separately or in combination to produce exquisite marvels. All these art forms flourished in different parts of the nation creating a difference in the procedural techniques, ingredients and type of equipments used. This results in the production of an exclusive fabric.
Block printing is the simplest method for printing patterns. The Chinese and the Indians have known this technique for the past two hundred years. Fabrics created by this method are famous world- wide for their enthralling looks and fine details. India is a major player in the global market as the country is an important exporter of fabric printed by the technique.

Why Block printing?

Fabrics produced by the block printing method look unique. The block prints are made possible by the manual carving of the wooden block which is used for printing. The result is an exclusive fabric which has been around the fashion industry for ages.

Materials Used

Here is the list of materials that are required to begin

Cloth:

The cloth used should be made up of pure natural fiber i.e. either pure cotton or pure silk. It should be washed and ironed before printing so as to remove the superficial finishing on the fabric. This ensures evenness and fastness of colours. After block printing, the fabric must be left untouched for 48 hours and then ironed inside out in order to ensure proper fixation of the dyes.

Colours:

Best used are the acramin dyes. These are water based, easy to use and have a considerably long shelf-life. The dyes consist of binder, dye colour and acrafix (dye fixer).