July 13, 2017
Lost in translation - our adventures in #monsoonprinting
We were warned! Don't go to Jaipur INDIA in the summer! It's bloody hot! The monsoons are horrible! But what do you do when one of us still has a full time job and the other has limited childcare options...you suck it up and go anyway! You may ask ask yourself: why does the monsoon season affect the block printing process? Well, when it is too wet outside, the air is too damp for proper drying, and, as we learned, the colors dry in unexpected shades. Or sometimes they just dry to brown- like if you mix all the colors together when you paint-- it turns to poo. Regardless of the warnings and the color disasters, spending an entire day in a hot as hell block printing workshop is a real treat. In this picture - the witching hour at the workshop- the guys laugh amongst themselves at us a la Elaine at the Vietnamese nail salon on Seinfeld. (NOTE: If you are under 35 you should google and watch that episode) #lostintranslation 🏽 You see we create the designs for our fabrics at our US based studios and then send the artwork to India where the images are hand-carved onto teak wood blocks. After a couple of days experimenting with placement and direction we finally start seeing the final version come to life. 
And boy does it feel good to see our finished fabrics drying in the sun, (no commercial dryers here - if it's monsooning nothing is drying) CUE #slowandpatientfashion! In fact the itinerant bursts of pouring rain always reminds Veronica of home in Miami, where torrential downpours all summer long are the norm. Truth is, the majority of our time here in pretty Jaipur is spent inside the print studio room racking our brains on color ways and trying desperately to communicate with the fine master printers in the funniest of ways. Like jazz, the best stuff comes in the late hour "jam sessions" (4 pm) when the Chai kicks in and we all "shoot the shit," crack up at each other and play with patterns. Add jet lag to the mix and it's a bonafide blockprinting rave! 