Jean Monro is one of the very few companies still editing hand-block designs. This process requires an apprenticeship of several years, often involves hundreds of different blocks and naturally, takes a long time to produce.

Each colour is applied separately and each requires several blocks. Lucy’s Roses, for example, has 180 blocks per repeat! The design details are applied by a combination of methods, all by hand. Once printed, minute retouches using the dye from the tray, are then also done by hand.

Hand-blocks are notoriously difficult to produce to exact colour tolerances. The take-up of the cloth is subject to changes in the atmosphere and sometimes differs in drying times. Another factor in colour tolerances is that different handblockers each carry their own recognisable style of printing.

The hand-block printing process is repeated for each pattern repeat and for every colourway down the whole length of the 18 meter table until that length is complete. This lengthy process can take up to a week.

Understandably, this is a very slow and labor-intensive operation. The end product however, is a fabric of great beauty and subtlety, and is truly inimitable. Due to the method of production, there are variations within the length of the cloth which add to the innate charm of the final product.