Walk through Sanganer, on the southern edge of Jaipur, and you can still hear it — the soft, rhythmic thud of wooden blocks meeting cotton. It is the sound of a craft that has survived more than five centuries, and it is the foundation of everything we make at The Baisa.
What is Sanganeri block printing?
Sanganeri is a hand block printing tradition that grew up around the Saraswati river settlements of Sanganer in the 16th–17th centuries, patronised by Jaipur's royal court. Its signature: fine floral motifs — butas, jaals, peacock feathers (morpankh) — printed in rich naturally-derived colours on a clean, usually off-white cotton ground. The craft is so distinctive that it carries a Geographical Indication (GI) tag, the same protection given to Darjeeling tea and Banarasi silk.
How a hand-blocked garment is made
- Block carving: a master carver chisels the motif into seasoned teak — one block per colour.
- Fabric preparation: the cotton is washed, de-starched and sun-bleached.
- Printing: the karigar dips the block in dye and presses it onto the fabric by hand — hundreds of times per piece, aligning each repeat by eye.
- Fixing & washing: dyes are steamed or cured, then the fabric is washed and sun-dried.
How to spot the real thing
Look closely at a genuine hand-blocked print and you'll find tiny inconsistencies — a slightly deeper shade where the block pressed harder, a hairline gap where two repeats meet. Machine prints are perfectly uniform; human hands are not. Those small variations are the signature of authenticity, and every Baisa piece carries them proudly.
Wear the craft
Explore our Morpankh Edit and hand-blocked kurta sets — designed, printed and stitched in Sanganer by our own unit, in inclusive sizes XS to 8XL.
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