Rishabh Khosla - June 10, 2020

Screen Printed with Love

THE MAKING OF A SCREEN

What makes a print standout and captivate ? It all comes down to the fabric, the colour, and the design. The missing ingredients of this sauce are the designers who conceive and the artisans who execute. Our most cherished designs are hand screen printed by craftspeople who are mavericks in their own right. The process is meticulous, their technique deft and the designs fresh.

DON'T MISS PART 1 OF OUR BLOG SERIES ON HOW WE DESIGN AND CRAFT OUR TEXTILES:

Allow us to take you behind the scenes with our series on Maker Stories, where we unravel the birth of these magnificent prints that you love. Screen allows to transfer the ink through a design mesh to transfer the pattern onto the fabric. Like a chef perfects a dish overtime, a skilled artisan knows the fabric, the use of colour and the final outcome. He seasons the three together to produce art on fabric. The finalised designs are etched on the mesh screens by skilled artisans, creating each layer that will deposit its own wash of color separately.  

Keeping the complexity of the design and the fabric in mind, a mesh screen is selected and coated with an emulsion. The more complex the design, the more the number of screens. The digital formats of the design are then exposed onto this mesh and allowed to dry. Thereafter the emulsion is washed off and the design stencil is ready. 

The screen is then placed on the printing tables and the fabric is printed. Each perfectly aligned so with each layer, the design emerges. Our iconic Panai print for example, is made with 5 screens layered on top of each other!

Our iconic Panai print is made with 5 screens layered on top of each other!

This sensational print is named after the celestial palm Panai, [in Tamil]. Drawn from a study of tropical botanicals, the handpainted original has garden foliage in multiple textures. 

THE FINE PRINT

The printing begins by rolling out the fabrics on the board. Executed by two artisans they move in tandem applying pressure using a squeegee to transfer the dye. This process may result in slight variations and attributes to the uniqueness of each piece.  

Our limited edition Koza print under development from our Latest Spring-Summer 2020 Collection: The SEED.

PRINTED FABRICS FROM FREEDOM TREE

Color variation and vivid hues is a FT trademark. We work with screenprinters, block printers, and a contemporary “digital printing” technique to bring our design renderings to life. Imagine your ink jet printer at home, but the size of a room, and spraying just the right jets of ink onto fabric instead of paper until a picture emerges line by line.

Signature Accent Cushions in digital prints from our Latest Spring-Summer 2020 Collection: The SEED

You can spot digital printing techniques on our finer accent cushions and premium upholstery.Our table linen, quilts and dohars are primarily made with block printing. The age-old craft of dyeing and colouring a fabric using wooden blocks has been perfected over generations and we bring to it a contemporary and modern interpretation - rooted firmly in the past, but looking for inspiration to the future. 

Explore Our Fabric Collections