QUALITY SIGNALS

How to Read a Block Print Up Close

Small variations from one motif to the next are the signature of the block.

Block printing is a very old way of putting a pattern on cloth. A design is carved into a wooden block, the block is pressed into color, and the color is pressed onto the fabric, one impression at a time. Because a person places every impression, the finished cloth carries small signs of how it came to be. Once you know them, they are easy to spot.

Look at the Joins

A block covers only a small area, so a pattern is built from hundreds of impressions set side by side. Where two impressions meet, you may find a hairline gap, a slight overlap, or a motif sitting a fraction higher than its neighbor. A machine-printed repeat is perfectly regular. A block print is regular the way handwriting is.

Compare One Motif With the Next

Find the same flower or leaf in two places and look at the color. One may be a little denser, the other a little lighter, depending on how much color the block carried on that impression. Across a whole cover this reads as depth. It is also the reason two covers in the same pattern are never quite identical.

Turn the Cloth Over

On many block prints the color travels partway through the fabric, so a ghost of the pattern shows on the reverse. How much shows depends on the weight of the cloth. On a fine cotton the reverse can be quite clear, while on a thick linen it may be faint.

Check How Colors Sit Together

In a two-color or multi-color print, each color is a separate block applied in a separate pass. Look at where a colored shape meets its outline. A sliver of bare ground at one edge, or a slight overlap at the other, shows the passes were lined up by eye.

What Counts as a Flaw, and What Does Not

Variation in density, tiny shifts in alignment, and small irregular joins are the technique showing itself, and they are not faults. A flaw is something else: a seam that has opened, a zipper that will not run, or a stain that was never part of the design. If a cover from us ever arrives with a problem of that kind, write to us through our Contact Us page and we will put it right.

Thank you for shopping with us, and for giving a good sofa something new to wear.