The fabric to be printed is washed free of starch and soft bleached if the natural gray of the fabric is not desired.
If dyeing is required as in the case of saris where borders or the body is tied and dyed it is done before printing.
The fabric is again washed to remove excess dye and dried thoroughly.
The fabric is stretched over the printing table and fastened with small pins. This is an important stage as there should be a uniform tension in the fabric and no ripples.
Color is mixed separately in another room. Usually pigment dyes are used for cotton. You can read more about dyes at the end of this page.
Color is kept in a tray on a wheeled wooden trolley with racks which the printer drags along as he works. On the lower shelves printing blocks are kept ready.
The tray of color rests on another tray which contains a thick viscous liquid made from the pigment binder and glue. This gives the color tray a soft base which helps to spread color evenly on the wooden block.
Blocks are made of seasoned teak wood by trained craftsmen. The underside of the block has the design hand carved on it by the block maker. Each block has a wooden handle and two to three cylindrical holes drilled into the block for free air passage and also to allow release of excess printing paste. The new blocks are soaked in oil for 10-15 days to soften the grains in the timber.
The printing starts form left to right. The color is evened out in the tray with a wedge of wood and the block dipped into the outline color (usually black or a dark color).
When the block is applied to the fabric, it is slammed hard with the fist on the back of the handle so that a good impression may register. A point on the block serves as a guide for the repeat impression, so that the whole effect is continuous and not disjoined. The outline printer is usually an expert because he is the one who leads the process. If it is a multiple color design the second printer dips his block in color again using the point or guide for a perfect registration to fill in the color. The third color if required follows likewise. Skill is necessary for good printing since the colors need to dovetail into the design to make it a composite whole.
The fabric, after pigment printing is dried out in the sun. This is part of the fixing process. It is then rolled in wads of newspapers to prevent the dye from adhering to other layers and steamed in boilers constructed for the purpose. Silks are also steamed this way after printing. After steaming, the material is washed thoroughly in large quantities of water and dried in the sun, after which it is finished by ironing out single layers, which fix the color permanently.
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