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Juliet Dunn’s love affair with India started many, many years ago.
As well as being an endless source of inspiration, there is nowhere on earth that could come close and produce such vibrant and beautiful colours. During our countless trips we are continuously hunting for embroidery, print and tie dying ideas to develop and form our new collections. We are proud and happy to work with artisans across India, travelling to explore the specialist regional techniques and helping to keep some of these ancient traditions alive. Every Juliet Dunn piece is made by hand with love and care in India by talented and skilled artisans and tailors.
Most of our prints are made using hand carved wooden blocks in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Each design has an individual block for each colour featured in the design.
They are carefully and precisely carved by hand and have to line up exactly to create the perfect print.
Fabric is then pinned to long blocking tables. The printers use only their experience and eyes to line up the design and with their hands bring down the blocks with a heavy stamp to start forming the design. They walk up and down the lengths of the tables layering up the different parts with each block and colour. Once complete the fabric is hung up on frame in the sun to dry.
Our hand embroidered pieces are mainly made in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh which specialises in Chikan work which is a traditional embroidery style.
A template of the pattern is made called a khaka which is then traced onto the fabric so that the embroiderers can see where to work. The fabric is then stretched across an adda frame which the embroiderers sit around to work. Some of the all over embroidery designs can take weeks to complete.
Ombre Silk – Each garment is partly stitched before going to be dyed. First the base colour is dyed, then each piece is dip dyed by hand to create the ombre effect in exactly the right place on the garment.
Tie Dye – Sarong lengths of fabric are cut and then twisted and tied in various ways to create different effects. They then have to be dyed separate times for each colour, finished fabrics are left to dry in the sun so the brightest and best colours can only be achieved at certain times of the year.
