Thinking about woodblocks reminded me of a work trip I took in 2007 for my day job. I was shown through a huge textile mill. It was so huge it took the whole day and every moment I was sucking in as much information as I possibly could. The highlight for me was this printing section (knitting was poorly represented here!) where they had brought neglected and unused woodblocks from England to Asia where it was possible, due to the lower manufacturing cost to continue on with the woodblock printing tradition. I almost died when I saw the fabric. Some repeats were so complex and had so many colours that even with several people working they could only turn out a few metres a day.
Antique woodblocks stored on the shelving at right
Working on the fabric
Finishing by hand
I left that day feeling so uplifted that woodblock printed fabric was not seeing that bright light at the end of the tunnel!
