Lily and Hopie Stockman have brought together centuries-old textile printing techniques and modern Californian aesthete to create Block Shop Textiles.

Here is a peek into the beautiful process –

Lily and Hopie’s designs are hand carved onto Sisam wood blocks by master carvers in Bagru. The fabric is prepared for printing by being soaked in a bath of harda, a natural mordant from the myrobalan nut, which helps the natural dyes bind to the fibers of the fabric.

A master printer dips the wooden printing block in a dye tray, then stamps the block on the fabric with a hard pound of the fist. This will be repeated from left to right, aligning the blocks perfectly by eye from years of experience.

The printed fabric fashioned into scarves or pillows are hung from roofs in the communal drying field and left to fix in the sun for up to three days. They are then boiled in a large copper pot in a bath of alum and dried flowers for softness and colorfastness.

Shop their collection of scarves and pillows here.