A popular and well known
method of creating designs on cloth is block printing. Bagh in Madhya Pradesh is traditional block printing centre.
Geometric and floral design is printed on both sides of the cloth. The base
cloth is treated to make it receptive for printing. Ajrakh from Kutch, Gujarat, is another technique by which
patterning is created by resist printing. Ajrak in Arabic means blue. The name
of the style could also come from the words aaj rakh, ‘keep it for the day’,
for the craftsmen believe that the longer the wait between the processes, the
finer the quality of the work. Both surfaces of the fabric are printed, with a
perfect placement of blocks to make the designs on either side identical.
Central Cottage Emporium also
has a wide range of block printed textiles in shades of blues, red, black,
green and maroon. The main styles and prints include Jaipur block prints,
khari, rapid, pigment and discharge on cotton, chanderi and maheshwari fabric
base. Floral and geometric designs are generally done with natural dyes in blue
and red colous.
