and Block printing uses metal or wooden blocks to print designs on textiles by hand. Fine wood blocks used by artists today are produced by gluing small pieces of end-grain boxwood together.
   

The design is painstakingly carved on ultra smooth surface. Hand block printing is when the block is directly pressed on the fabric and the impression made. The cloth to be printed is stretched. Colour is added to a pad on which the wooden block is pressed. This is then stamped on the cloth and an impression of the positive design is made. Many blocks are employed to produce multi-coloured prints, each providing a part of the final design. The method is laborious since a very large number of impressions have to be made to print the entire design on the cloth.