Five thousand years after the oldest surviving scraps of block printed fabric were created in the Indus Valley, the art is still practiced with colorfully dramatic results. It is a painstaking and laborious process. Preparing a single garment can occupy a team of twenty people for eight hours. Imagine how many hours have been spent in the history of the world by people practicing the art of block printing!

The process begins with the preparation of the wood blocks. Craftspeople carve intricate designs into teak blocks of various shapes and sizes. It can take five carvers up to three days of labor to create a single block. A single design can take up to thirty blocks because of the use of color and design in the fabric. A different block is used for each color in the fabric and each design may have up to four or five colors. Most traditional designs have both a border print and a center print, so the printers require two sets of blocks to complete a piece of fabric. Picture how much skill a carver must have to make blocks whose designs fit together so well that they create a single multicolor design.

The back of the block has a handle for the printers to hold when they use it. There are cylindrical holes in the block to allow excess paint to be expressed. Points and other indicators on the blocks provide a guideline for the printer to place the block on the fabric. Once the carvers have completed their work, they soak the block in oil for up to two weeks to soften the wood, make the dyes adhere to the blocks better and make the printing process smoother.

Once the blocks are ready, the printers prepare the fabric. Although printers will sometimes use silk, the most common type of fabric used in block printing is cotton. They pin the fabric onto long rectangular tables that have been padded with 24 layers of jute. The padding allows some give and resiliency to the printing process.

Finally, the printing begins. There are three methods of block printing. The first method, called discharge printing, requires the printer to dye the entire piece of cloth a single color. Then the printer bleaches out the dye from the portions of the fabric that will be receiving dye from the wood blocks. The printer goes back over the bleached out portions of the fabric, applying dye from the wood blocks in the chosen design.

The second block printing method is called the direct method. The printer dyes the entire cloth as in discharge printing. But unlike discharge printing, he or she doesn't go back and bleach the dye out. Rather, the printer applies the dye from the wood block on top of the dye of the background color.

The third method of block printing is called the resist method. In that method, the wood blocks are not used to apply dye, but rather to apply an impermeable resist, which can be resin, wax or clay. The cloth is dyed whole with the resist still affixed to the fabric. Then the resist is removed, creating a design in reverse.

Printing is done from left to right with a different printer responsible for each color. When the printer is using the discharge or direct block printing method, he or she dips the wood block into the dye then presses it onto the fabric, holding the block by the handle on the top. The printer then slams the top of the block hard with her fist, creating a firm impression of the design onto the fabric. The printer then removes the block to the next portion of the fabric, using the holes and points carved into the block as guidelines for placing the block As she works, she pulls along a cart loaded with the blocks and dyes needed for the printing. Then another printer comes behind the first, using different blocks and different colors to complete the design. Think of the teamwork involved in the process. Each printer must be aware of the work of the printer that came before, and must be watching out for the work of the printer to come next, in order to create a whole, intricate design.

Since each piece is created by hand, individual artisans can create customized patterns with the same materials. The printers can arrange the blocks in different order to make each piece of fabric unique. They can choose different dyes for each portion of the print. In that way, block printing is like jazz. The artist takes her tools and improvises.

Once the printers have finished their work on the fabric, and all the colors are complete and all the different portions of the intricate designs are done, then the fabric needs to be treated to fix the dyes. First, the fabric dries in the sun. That's one reason why the dying process is interrupted during the monsoon season. When the dye has dried, the fabric is rolled up in newspapers and steamed in boilers. Then the fabric is washed, dried in the sun again and ironed. The final result of this steaming, drying and ironing process is a piece of cloth decorated with vibrant colors.

So the block print bedspread on your bed is the work of dozens of hands using a whole assortment skills and techniques developed over the course of fifty centuries. Cool.