Dyeing and Blocking- The history behind Printed Fabrics by Debra E. Marvin

In the 18th Century, among the many fascinating items Europeans began to ‘need’ from the far east were printed fabrics. “Fast Printed” meant the colors were not supposed to run, not the speed of creation. By 1700 English, French, and Dutch craftsmen had figured out how to fix their dyes and create prints with the use of elaborate carved woodblocks, but they were slow to catch imports for their desirability.  

Here's a link to an incredible dress from 1780s made of Indian Chintz. Such colors and bold patterns!

Of course, the labor was backbreaking – cold, dark workrooms with boiling vats of dye. Bleak, monotonous work for very long days. Sadly, few samples of the earliest of prints survive. Cotton took dye best and natural fabrics deteriorate unless kept under the best of situations.

The Madder Plant. Roots were the source of red dye

Most dying centered around two major colors – red and blue and were created by the use of MADDER for red and INDIGO for blue.

THE PROCESS:
It’s incredible to see the intricate details carved on old woodblocks.  Dots worked into the patterns (or not) helped the worker line up the block from spot to spot. A block was colored (think of stamping –rolled on, or pressed onto the dye) and pressed against fabric, then imprinted with a tap from a mallet. The process continued, block by block down the yards and yards of fabric. Consider that in a yard and a half , the process on 45” material would have been done 91 times alone with a 4”  sq. block.  (note-45” wide material is the norm now, not then!)

If you are like me, you love TOILE. Here’s an excellent representation of detail but done in one color.

Imagine the work that went into this fabric!

Amazing printed fabric from 1775-1800

http://www.marquise.de/database/dbout.php?name=hindelopen1.jpg&lang=.

Block printing was not perfect and that’s the charm of it. A discerning seamstress might well pass on fabric that was not lined up properly, or had the occasional smear, but someone would use it.  It’s not surprising that prints were not found on the clothes of servants and the working class in the 18^th Century!

CREATING THE WOOD  PATTERN BLOCKS was a time-consuming enterprise, starting with a thick block of wood made from sycamore / planetree or pear wood (primarily  in England). They had to be of quality to resist warping when wet, and were backed with two or three other layers of wood, often pine. Grains ran in opposite directions in each layer to further prevent warping.

The block was sanded completely flat and smooth before accepting the sketched on design which was transferred on.  The design started on paper, as it had to be copied over to other blocks if the design had multiple colors. For each color the area of the design was left and the balance carved away. I understand the process from making printing blocks out of a linoleum type material, but the skill involved to make a multi-colored block amazes me.

At times, small details had to be made in metal and added to the block, as small cuts tend to wear away or chip off. The use of copper added a very intense amount of work in such cases.

The process to print continues with the choice of a good cloth, fast dyes, and steady hands. And patience!

For a multi-color print, the entire bolt of fabric had to be hand printed in one color and allowed to dry. A second, third or fourth color could be added with different blocks for the same pattern and additional stamping and drying time. In some cases, if a color was only used in a small part, it was hand painted on.

For many years in England, import of printed fabric was illegal. People loved it but it took away from the domestic fabric industry—until British craftsmen could compete with Indian craftsmen!  Textiles from India led the market for a long time. India muslin and calico remained in high demand even after British mills were rolling out cotton fabric.

Here are few more ways to create printed cloth:

Mordant Dyeing (chemical fixatives stamped to the cloth which was then put into a pot of dye)

Resist Dyeing (placing a resist material, like a wax, on the fabric where dye was not to attach)

Hand Painting!

Flower designs were popular, and still are. Fabric printing by mid 18^th century was done to mimic embroidery.  Later, bolder patterns of twisting stems and lines came along but so did small designs which were much easier and cheaper to produce! Now the working class could wear  simple prints.

The term Calico represents printed cotton and may have originated in America as the general term for cotton prints coming from the port of Calicut, India. Chintz, another popular cotton print (generally with a more polished cotton thread and therefore a shinier fabric) is believed to have come from the Hindi word Chint which meant variegated.

I won’t take for granted the classic look of printed cotton when I consider its not so humble beginnings.

For anyone creating period clothing, it is important to look at what materials were used at the time.

Eliza Lucas Pinckney and Indigo in South Carolina

Eliza's grandson's wife is pictured here--
there are no known portraits
of Eliza surviving.

By Susan F. Craft

              I recently attended the Francis Marion Memorial Days at Camp Bob Cooper near Summerton, SC, where more than 50 presenters devoted their time over the three-day event to make sure everyone received a hands-on history lesson. At more than 20 different stations visitors learned about life during the American Revolution – about Hessian and German soldiers, blacksmiths, quill writers, tomahawks, muskets, rifles, pistols, clothing, crime and punishment, and flint boxes and fire starting. 

            The station that caught my eye was the one where Peggy Chiappetta presented the story of Eliza Lucas Pinckney and demonstrated how to dye cloth with indigo and various other herbs and plants.

Famous South Carolinian, Eliza Lucas, who was born in Antigua in 1722, took charge of her father’s plantation near Charles Town, SC, when he, as a British Army officer was called back into the military. She was only sixteen.  Her mother was ill, so Eliza ran the estate and cared for her mother and younger sister.

            She traveled to England, where she learned the “social graces” that comprised most of a woman’s education at that time.  Because she excelled at everything she attempted to learn, she was allowed to study botany, a subject that interested her.  Still in her teens, after she returned home to South Carolina, she received indigo seeds from her father in the West Indies. Her knowledge of botany gave her a great advantage as she experimented for three years ways to make a high-quality blue dye from the indigo plant.

Mrs. Peggy Chiappetta

            Mrs. Chiappetta gave the following fascinating account of how indigo was processed.

The three- to four-foot tall bushes would be cut and thrown into a pond where they were allowed to rot. That pond would be drained into an empty pond, taking with it the purple water and leaving behind the rotted plants. Slaves would then beat the surface of that pond with sticks, stirring up the oxygen which interacted with the water, forming particles that sunk to the bottom.  When ready, that pond would be drained, leaving behind purple clay that was fashioned into bricks, which is how the dye was sold.

Mrs. Chiappetta demonstrates how to dye with indigo.

            Eliza was eventually so successful at producing indigo plants, that she allowed them to flower and to produce seeds which she gave – not sold -- to other planters. This provided such a lucrative business for South Carolina planters that Lewis Booker Wright in South Carolina, A Bicentennial History (1976) wrote, "So rapid was the development of the industry that by 1748, South Carolina shipped England 134,118 pounds of indigo cakes, and it remained a profitable crop until the Revolution."

Historian Edward McCrady wrote: "Indigo proved more really beneficial to Carolina than the mines of Mexico or Peru were to Spain . . . . The source of this great wealth . . . was a result of an experiment by a mere girl."

In 1744, Eliza married a widower, Charles Pinckney, a Chief Justice of the Province, and they had four children, Charles Cotesworth, Thomas, another son who died, and a daughter, Harriott.

After her marriage, Eliza continued experiments with hemp and flax and revived the silk culture in the Lowcountry. She took over management of her husband's several plantations and Charles Town properties after his death in 1758.

Her two sons became national figures: Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, who was a general in the Revolutionary War and a signer of the United States Constitution; and Thomas Pinckney, also a Revolutionary War officer, later a general, and the United States Minister to Spain and to Great Britain.

Eliza died in 1793, and President George Washington, who had been so impressed years earlier by his meeting with her, requested to be a pall bearer.

The Charleston City Gazette, in Eliza Pinckney's obituary, wrote, "Her manners had been so refined by a long and intimate acquaintance with the polite world, her countenance was so dignified by serious contemplation and devout reflection, and so replete with all that mildness and complacency which are the natural results of a regular uninterrupted habit and practice of virtue and benevolence that it was scarcely [possible] to behold her without emotions of the highest veneration and respect. Her understanding, aided by an uncommon strength of memory, had been so highly cultivated by travel and extensive reading, and was so richly furnished, as well with scientific, as practical knowledge, that her talent for conversation was unrivalled. . . .”

Here are more pictures of the Francis Marion Memorial Days.

Colonial woman's flint candle lighter.

Colonial gentleman's rope of tobacco.

Mr. Holloway from TN explains how to make char 

cloth and how to start a fire with flint.