Design Process: Making of the Langur Print
In this post we’ll take you behind the scenes of the design process and the making of our Langur Print. From inspiration, to illustrating the patterns and finally hand screen printing and making our hand crafted textiles.
Inspired by Monkeys in the Forest
The Langur print is part of our Tiger Safari collection. The collection tells the story of our adventures in the Tiger Reserves and National Parks of India. It’s hard to go on safari without seeing at least one Langur! These monkeys are such a common sight in the forests and parks (and all over India), and we love how much personality they have, so we just had to include them in the collection.
Designing the Langur Print
We liked the idea of drawing the Langurs amongst the trees. They seemed to be in their own little world up there, busy grooming, eating, playing. Sarah began the design process on her wacom, drawing rough sketches and composition ideas. Gradually refining it until we were happy with the layout, details and repeat.
We design prints in pairs, so that our quilts and cushions are reversible with a different print on either side. The prints are designed to complement each other and tell the same story. For the Langur Print we designed ‘Shaken Leaves,’ a decorative leaf print inspired by the leaves that fall when monkeys jump from branch to branch.
Sampling the Design
Once the design is finalised, the next stage is to separate the colours in the designs and make individual screens, as each colour is printed layer by layer. And then select Pantone colours as references and start printing trials.
Making sure the screens are set up and the pattern is aligning properly is super important before we begin!
Printing the Fabric
Once we’ve tested everything we’re all set to go.
The design is printed alternately along the length of the fabric so the ink has time to dry and doesn’t smudge by the time the screen touches it again.
The screen printing table has a lightly sticky surface for the fabric to stay in place. When the full length of fabric is printed, it’s hung up to dry, whilst the printers wear special taped-up shoes to walk on the table!
Stitching Langur Products
Back in our studio the printed fabric is stitched into products.
Langur Quilt and Cushion
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