After several days of experimentation, I had decided upon two favourite designs to choose between for my final garment. My garment is to be a two-piece set, with a high neck sleeveless crop top and matching A-line skirt.

The first of my designs draws upon the hand-painting element I had experimented with early on. My woodblock design is to be printed in black upon a cream silk/rayon fabric with embedded gold flecks throughout it. It would then be hand painted with the dye concentrates in oranges and pinks to create a pomegranate-like colour. I could also do the same with a leaf motif block, belonging to Fiona's studio. This would be painted in orange and could serve as a coordinate print to my original woodblock design. 

Instead of a flat solidarity in colour that is produced commercially, my fabric will have differing concentrations dispersed unevenly – giving it the unique, hand painted quality.

The second is a combination of my own woodblock design with several of Fiona’s existing blocks. Firstly a background of spots is applied in orange. These spots are already irregular in their shape and size but will then be applied in different directions, overlapping one another so the spots become seemingly random. Then my woodblock is printed on top in black. Using a two-piece botanical woodblock of Fiona’s, I constructed a stenciled border to accompany the print. Utilizing positive and negative space, the border becomes a reverse of the main print. The background is printed first in orange, which blocks out the entire space, then the black outline is printed on top.

The last few days, we have mostly been spent experimenting. To the horror of the print artisans who are used to traditional methods of printing, we mixed and clashed prints, scrunched and tore fabric, misaligned purposely, printed in differing directions, stenciled, hand painted - completely upheaving the traditional practice.

I found that I particularly enjoyed hand painting after block printing. Using the concentrated print dyes, I would dilute them accordingly and just using a paintbrush, painted directly onto my pre-printed fabrics. This is something I could perhaps explore in my final garment construction.

We also experimented with our own woodblock designs, printing them in different ways and with complimentary woodblocks and continued to push the boundaries of traditional woodblock printing.

Time to christen Fiona’s brand new print room! We spent the day just experimenting and playing around with Fiona’s existing woodblocks. Some are traditional patterns from the Rajasthan area; others are more contemporary, with graffiti influences, script in both English and Hindi, geometrics, and more. Registration and alignment of the woodblocks proved difficult, particularly for certain woodblocks.

Two and three piece woodblocks are interesting, particularly in the method of application. Nandu, our lovely print assistant implored that the surface/outline print is to be applied first, then it’s background colour. I found it much easier however, to do the reverse – much to her amusement.

Cecilia highlighted the importance of having a test strip of fabric beside us at all times whilst printing. This test strip would not only test the quality of the print but also marked the start of any experimentation we were about to embark on. Often this test strip could provide inspiration in times of creative blocks – and so we created a communal test piece, in which we all would contribute to.

We developed a one metre repeat print of a single woodblock – just nice and simple to become accustomed to the printing. We also printed half a metre of a stripe – by alternating between two woodblocks.  

Pushkar is considered one of the holiest towns in India. Just two hours drive from Jaipur, the town of Pushkar centres around a lake, is bordered by deserts and mountain ranges and is quite the little stunner.

The prettiest of cows stroll casually down the streets and marketplace, occasionally popping heads into people’s homes to score a snack. Each street you turn down has at least two temples – there are over 500 temples in this one town!

The most decorated camels awaited to take us on a sunset stroll around the villages in Pushkar to Fiona’s house. With henna paintings, coolourful necklaces and floral nose adornments, these camels can make you feel a bit underdressed. We cooked our first Indian dinner together and it’s easy to say we felt right at home.

It just so happens that Mr Rumbabbagi has a 15ft deep indigo dye vat practically in his front yard. This vat is cleaned out every 5 or 6 years, maybe, and bubbles over with thick oily blue froth – definitely had some cool voodoo cauldron vibes going on.

We prepared a few pieces of both plain and mud block-printed fabrics using shibori ties and left some pieces unchanged. The dried preprinted mud designs will act as a resist to the indigo dye – working in a similar way to batik. The fabric pieces are dipped into the dye vat, the more times - the darker the wash, and left to dry out on the street, with a watchful eye for any curious walkabout cows.