While I was researching about how to produce my personalize printed textile, I came about the technique and history of woodblock printed textiles. And, these are some of the facts I found:
-Textiles were the main surface for wood printing before paper came around.
-The oldest examples of this technique comes from China and Egypt; although, some researchers think that Indian textiles predate the Chinese and Egyptians: they concluded that the Indian climate is harsh on the fibers of fabric, therefore, there are not good surviving examples... but, the woodblock printing tradition has been run in the Hindus Valley by the same families for centuries.
-The textiles used are silk, cotton and linen.
-There are three tools you need: wooden blocks, textiles and dye.
-Also, there are three methods of wood printing: Discharge printing, direct printing and resist printing.
-It is very time consuming to block print fabric: from carving the wood blocks (by hand); to the dozens of people involved in printing and dyeing the fabric...according to my sources, it takes about twenty people about eight hours to prepare one wood block printed garment (about 4 to 5 yards of material)!
The upper images look like William Morris, who has some gorgeous examples on display at the Huntington Library. I love his work!
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