The process of creating indigo block prints starts with soaking indigo plant bundles. This helps extract the beautiful vibrant dye. Simultaneously, long cotton sheets are laid out to absorb the color.

Hand-carved wooden blocks are used for applying a wax resist to the cotton fabric. Once the fabric has been dyed, the areas with the wax application, continue to remain white and the rest of the sheet takes on the dynamic hues of lapis lazuli, cerulean, and midnight, all originating from the exotic indigo plant.

Different designers use different techniques for hand-block printing. The popular ones include ‘bagru’ or vegetable and natural dye-based printing, mud resists or ‘dabu’ printing, kalamkari printing, hot discharge printing, tie and dye, and several others.

Most people have experienced the characteristic fading or bleeding of the indigo fabric, this is primarily because indigo will not actually form a chemical bond with the fabric to which it is dyed. It ends up becoming insoluble again when put into water. By reacting with air, it tends to get accumulated into the tiny spaces within the fiber. With the passage of time, the rubbing of the fiber caused some of the blue to wear off and this creates the faded lines.