The process of batik block printing is a time intensive one.  A whole lot of love and dedication goes into each of our hand dyed and hand printed batik products:  batik cloth napkins, batik tea towels, batik placemats, batik table runners, batik zipper pouches and clutches, pillows.

We are fortunate to work with Mr. Edmunson, a skilled batik artisan in Winneba, Ghana.  Mr. Edmunson has a history of working in textile mills in Ghana where he worked on industrially printed African wax print textiles.  He is now retired from working in the mills (many of which are sadly no longer in existence in Ghana).   Mr. Edmunson works with his wife in his backyard/ courtyard outside his house to make hand dyed and hand printed batik fabric to sell at local markets to be sewn into African fashion.  Inspired by the handmade batik wax resist and handy dyeing process, I have designed my own collection of batik prints to be sewn into home goods- batik table linens, napkins, and tea towels for Rustic Loom.

Here I am with Mr. Edmunson working on our thin stripe wood block print. We tried a few different ways of stamping the pattern to get just the right layout on the fabric.

Here is Mr. Edmunson and his wife working on the placement of the batik wax print on the cloth- the darker white lines and dots are the wax- this fabric will then by dyed, printed with wax, then dyed again to achieve multiple layers of color shades in the fabric.

And here is the final product from layered process of batik block printing, dyeing, and removing wax to reveal many shades of blue in this stripe pattern placement.