THE STORY BEHIND THE CRAFT
A thousand impressions, lined up by eye
Farida Chhipa
Rampura Dabri, Jaipur, Rajasthan
Representative photo: Shyam Kumar verma clicks · CC0 · credits
Meet the maker
Farida Chhipa
Hand block printing
“The block remembers the carver's hand. The cloth remembers mine.”
Farida (a fictional demo maker) prints in the courtyard of her home, on a long table padded with layers of jute and cotton.
Farida prints on a long padded table in the courtyard, aligning each block by eye. Her husband carves new blocks; she mixes the colours — iron rust for black, pomegranate rind for yellow — and decides the layouts. A bedcover can need more than a thousand impressions.
Visit profile- Making time
- About 6 days (with drying)
- hours of handwork
- 16
- Materials
- Cotton cambric, Vegetable & mineral dyes
- Origin
- Jaipur, Rajasthan
- Craft
- 14 years of practice
How it is made
Step by step
The cloth is washed, pinned to the table and printed block by block, colour by colour. Between colours it dries in the sun. Finally it is washed in running water to fix the dyes.
- 01
Preparing the cloth
Cotton is scoured and washed to remove starch.
- 02
Outline block
The black outline is printed first, block by block along the length.
- 03
Filling colours
Separate blocks add each colour, aligned by eye to the outline.
- 04
Sun & wash
The cloth dries in the sun, then is washed and dried again.
Tradition & history
Hand block printing
Rajasthan's block printing uses hand-carved teak blocks; many families still carve their own.
Materials
Cotton cambric; iron-rust black, madder red and pomegranate-rind yellow.
Sourcing
Cloth from a mill in the state; natural dye materials from local markets.
Impact & fair price
How this price is made
Each bedcover supports both a printer and a block carver.
Maker's share (estimate)
- Materials
- ₹950
- Labour (16 hrs) × ₹120
- ₹1,920
- Listed price
- ₹3,250
An estimate from material cost, hours and margin — not an official market price.
Own this piece
Hand Block-Printed Cotton Bedcover
₹3,250
More than a thousand block impressions, each lined up by eye.
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THE STORY BEHIND THE CRAFT
Hand Block-Printed Cotton Bedcover
by Farida Chhipa · Jaipur, Rajasthan
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Reviews
- K
Karthik (demo)
Printed by hand and you can tell — tiny variations make it special.
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Hand Block-Printed Cotton Bedcover
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