Designing the Scarves

I worked on the designs for the scarves while we were in India, sketching out patterns along the way. I wanted to work from existing designs that I already had for sale (or in the works) so that the scarves would fit in with the rest of my prints. So I drew up some repeating patterns on paper, and worked with the printers to create the printing blocks from the sketches.

 

The scarves are printed with wood blocks rather than linoleum, since linoleum would never hold up to the natural dyes and repetitive printing they are used for. I had my blocks carved from a hard wood that would last much longer for textile printing (I learned to do this the first time I studied block printing but a block like this would have taken me about two weeks to carve, so it made a lot more sense to have a professional do it).

Then, each scarf was printed by hand, rinsed multiple times and laid out in the sun to dry next to a water buffalo.

 

(You can find them online right here.)