Block printing is an age old technique of creating decorative papers and fabrics.  This method is still as relevant today as it was centuries ago when it was created.  We have been blessed with a wonderful friend that has teamed us up with carpenters in India that are keeping this method alive.  The images and motifs are hand carved into wood and then soaked in olive oil to ensure clear, crisp, quality impressions. Here are just a few of the ways that you can create your own unique fabric, block, or mixed media:

From Wikipedia: “The wood block is carefully prepared as a relief pattern, which means the areas to show ‘white’ are cut away with a knife, chisel, or sandpaper leaving the characters or image to show in ‘black’ at the original surface level. The block was cut along the grain of the wood. It is necessary only to ink the block and bring it into firm and even contact with the paper or cloth to achieve an acceptable print. The content would of course print “in reverse” or mirror-image, a further complication when text was involved.

For color printing, multiple blocks are used, each for one color, although overprinting two colors may produce further colors on the print. Multiple colors can be printed by keying the paper to a frame around the woodblocks.

Block printing has also been extensively used for decorative purposes such as fabrics, leathers and wallpaper. This is easiest with repetitive patterns composed of one or a small number of motifs that are small to medium in size (due to the difficulty of carving and handling larger blocks). For a multi-color pattern, each color element is carved as a separate block and individually inked and applied. It also remains in use for making cloth, mostly in small artisanal settings, for example in India.”