Mud resist block printing

A mixture of tree gum, mud collected from dry lakes, and a byproduct of the wheat industry is mixed (by foot!) and sifted, creating a smooth, sticky bowl of mud.

Using a carved wooden printing block, mud is transferred to the fabric. It’s quite a splattery process!

While the mud is still wet, sawdust is sprinkled onto the printed mud, to speed its drying, and to stop the mud from transferring when the fabric is laid out in the sun to dry.

After drying, the scarves are carefully dipped into a deep vat of natural indigo dye and stirred gently with a long pole. The blue colour of indigo is caused by an oxidation process, so care must be taken not to get air bubbles into the vat, as it will cause an uneven dye process.

Sunshine and oxygen are the essential ingredients for the blue of indigo, so the dipped scarves are laid in the sun to dry. You can see the mud is still sticking to the fabric, protecting those bits from making contact with the colour.

A final wash with a mordant called Alum, which sets the dye with the fabric, removes the mud, revealing the white fabric that the mud had covered, and the scarves are dried once again.

Block printing and indigo dying is an extraordinary amount of hard work. Every step of the way, hands are hard at work, washing and preparing fabric, stamping patterns, carefully dying, drying and then washing once again. I’m simply awed by the process and by the people who do it. This is  Ms Raj Kanwar and the team at Ojjas in Sanganer, who taught the Ritchie Ace Camp group. A round of applause, please!