Traditional Indian Block Print
Block Print has been a tradition and way of making textiles in India for hundreds of years. Its intricate detail, beauty, and variation have long inspired my design instincts and fabric collecting habits. Once we started working these textiles into collars and leashes, we knew we needed to create a whole collection. That collection is our latest, The Florals.
After a lot of research and swatching, we decided to source our fabrics from artisans in the Chhipa community, an old Indian community engaged in Fabric Printing and Dyeing since ancient Indian Civilization.
One of the things to love about Block Print and purchasing from the artisans in the Chhipa community is that this way of manufacturing textiles is more sustainable than large fabric mills. Unlike giant textile mills that use excessive synthetic colorants that pollute waterways these traditional methods are low impact and support craftsmanship and multi-generational artisan families.
The crafting process for Block Print starts with an artisan carving (by hand) wooden blocks to create beautiful, intricate patterns. Color is then painted onto the woodblock and printed in repetition on fabric.
Once dried, the crafter repeats this with another block and/ or layer of color that lays over the first. Usually, this is 2-4 colors in varying degrees of detail. One 10-yard piece of fabric might take two skilled people an entire day to create.
We love all the natural variation this process creates, little lines and sways of colors that skirt outside of lines and blur these fabrics from textiles into works of art.
For The Florals - we made leashes, collars, and bandanas. For extra weathering, we decided to wax each piece in this collection with a blend of beeswax and essential oils, which absorbs into the fabric and helps to keep it water-resistant and give it extra strength and durability. This wax blend also makes it more resistant to dirt and stains to keep your pup looking fresh.
We’re really happy with how this collection has turned out and love that we’ve been able to combine our craftsmanship with the craftsmanship of others. Thank you so much for your support in making this happen, we know your pups are going to look fly a.f.
Spring has sprung, which means new stuff. Like new baby birds, new flowers and new seasons of house of cards! We love new stuff. New stuff is what keeps the world in motion but in celebration of new stuff we want to take a moment to appreciate old stuff. Stuff with a story behind it, stuff that was once new but now has had some wild adventure-time under its belt and maybe even gotten some wisdoms (kinda like how much better your haircut decisions are today than they were at senior prom). 
Our company is still pretty new in the scheme of things (this June will mark our one year anniversary of opening our online store- hooray!). However just about a year ago today we sold our very first collar to our roommates and their adopted 6 month old puppy Kaya. Turns out Kaya, being a puppy, really liked playing, and rolling in dirt at dogparks, and falling off small cliffs at Runyon canyon. Her Ellie collar went with her on all those adventures and we’re pretty happy to report that somehow, one year of daily adventures later, that first collar we sold still looks pretty damn rad. 