Every linen tea towel we stock is block-printed by hand. That phrase gets used a lot in product descriptions without much explanation of what it actually means. Here's the process, from the carved block to the finished cloth, and why it produces something that a screen-printed version can't quite replicate.

Carving the block ¶

The block is usually carved from a dense wood or a firm rubber compound. The design is transferred onto the surface and then cut away, leaving the raised areas that will carry the ink. For a botanical motif like the rosehip sprig on this autumn's tea towel, the carving takes several hours and produces a block that will be used for an entire print run before being retired or reworked.

The carving process means that every block has slight irregularities. These carry through to the print. Two tea towels from the same block will be very similar but not identical, particularly at the edges of the motif where the ink pressure varies slightly.

Printing on stonewashed linen ¶

Stonewashed linen is used because it's already soft and slightly irregular in texture, which suits the hand-printed aesthetic. The ink is a water-based textile ink that's heat-set after printing, usually with a domestic iron or a heat press, to make it washfast.

The printing itself is done by hand, one impression at a time. The block is inked, pressed firmly onto the cloth, and lifted cleanly. Getting consistent pressure across the whole block takes practice. Too light and the print is patchy. Too heavy and the ink bleeds at the edges. The slight variation in pressure is part of what gives a block-printed piece its character.

Why it fades slightly, and why that's fine ¶

Block-printed textiles will fade slightly with washing, particularly in the first few washes. This is normal and expected. The colour softens rather than disappearing, and most people find the faded version as appealing as the original. Washing in cool water and avoiding tumble drying will slow the fading considerably.

The seasonal motif ¶

We change the motif each season. The autumn print is a rosehip sprig on an oat ground. The spring print was a small fern frond. We keep the previous season's prints in the archive but don't restock them, which means each run is genuinely limited.

The next time you wash one of these tea towels and notice the print has softened a little, that's the linen doing what linen does. It's not a flaw in the process.