From cotton to cloth, design to delivery – a story of Indian blockprinting

India is the world’s largest producer of raw cotton, much of it grown by small farmers in the Western India cotton belt under very challenging conditions. This cotton is processed into yarn, then spun into cloth, often in large factories, many of them in Rajasthan.

The finished cloth is chosen carefully by our suppliers and shipped to Rajasthan’s capital, the famous ‘Pink City’ of Jaipur. Here it is transformed by the magic of blockprinting, using wooden blocks derived from our own designs, into homeware which will bring a bit of that magic and that journey into your home.

The history of block printing in this traditional way goes back over 3,500 years. While a modern design may be crafted on an i-pad, this has to be copied onto paper which is then placed on top of a wooden block, traced and then painstakingly carved to create the finished block. Colours are matched and chosen before the printing begins.  One finished design may require multiple blocks, each of which must be applied separately and by hand. It is the very opposite of automation.

That beauty and the craftsmanship embedded within it, supports livelihoods all the way along, from farmers in Maharashtra to seamstresses sewing quilts in Rajasthan.