Saturday, May 17, 2014

Meet the Batik Block Print Artisan

Meet Mr. Edmunson, the batik craftsman who makes the batik fabric in the latest collection of Rustic Loom housewares. Mr Edmunson worked for many years in a textile printing factory in the printing town of Tema, Ghana. He now makes batik prints out of his home in Winneba.


I visited Mr. Edmunson, a batik artisan in Winneba Ghana to create this collection of batik block prints. Here is the batik process: First, a wooden block is carved by a wood craftsman. Batik blocks in Ghana are more rough, and bold, as compared to wooden blocks carved for kalamkari printing in India.



The wooden block is then dipped into hot wax



The fabric is then stamped with the wooden block covered in wax



The fabric is then dyed, and wherever there was wax, the fabric remains undyed.



This process is repeated to achieve desired amount of colors in the batik block print.