African Zig Zag Border Wooden Printing Block - Handcrafted Fabric Printing and Batik Tools

Hand carved zig-zag border stamp, reminiscent of West African mudcloth designs. Perfect for fabric printing, batik and pottery.

Size: Approx. 10cm x 3cm.

About our wooden printing blocks

Our wonderful woodblocks are hand carved in India, where they are traditionally used to create block printed fabric, either by using a wax or clay resist, or by printing the design using coloured dyes.

Available in an ever-changing range of designs and shapes, these wooden stamps are beautiful and functional! Explore our full range here.

How to use wood blocks with wax

The process of using woodblocks in batik is slightly different to using them with paints. Here are a few tips:

• Melt a small amount of batik wax mix in your wax pot
• Cut 4 circles of cotton fabric to fit the bottom of your wax pot, and put them in the melted wax, allowing it to soak into the fabric to create a kind of wax stamp pad.
• Layer some newspapers on your work surface, and lay the fabric to be printed on top.
• Press the wood block onto the melted wax stamp pad, and then press onto your fabric (it's worth doing a few test runs first!).
• Repeat the process, and then continue as you would with any other batik project.
• Please note - once you've used your woodblock for batik, it's best to keep it strictly for wax.

Printing with woodblocks

You can easily print on a variety of surfaces with our wood blocks, from paper and fabric to clay. The key is to use the right printing medium.

• To print on paper, we recommend using acrylic or gouache paints.
• To print on fabric, use fabric paints or acrylic paints mixed with a fabric medium.
• To print on clay, simply press the woodblock into the clay before it's dried or fired. You can fill the relief with glaze or paint depending on what sort of clay you're using.