Bagru Block Print Camp
Oct 9, 2026
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Oct 11, 2026
Bagru is a small town near Jaipur where cloth has been block printed for over three hundred years. The colours come from ordinary things: mud, iron, flowers, bark.
In this camp, children start by finding these colours in the Dhun bioreserve, then spend two days in Bagru learning the craft itself. They print with real blocks, help make the colours, and dye their own cloth. Whatever they make, they take home. And it changes how they see something as ordinary as the shirt they're wearing.
Our Partner in Bagru
At Bagru, we spend time exploring the community and working at the Wabisabi Project, a small studio that works only with natural dyes and traditional hand block printing.
The President of India honoured the founders of the studio with a National Award in 2018 for their work in the craft. And while publications like National Geographic, The New York Times, Condé Nast and Lonely Planet recommend their workshops, what we like most is how patiently they share what they know.
Foraging for colour
A walk through the bioreserve with our naturalists, collecting leaves, flowers, and earth, and learning where natural pigments begin.
Printing with blocks
Inside the studio, children watch colour being made from mud, natural dyes, and pigment prepared as it has been for generations. Also study the carved wooden blocks, and print with them.
The dyeing process
Under the guidance of artisans, hands-on work with natural dyes, carrying their printed cloth through to colour. Every child takes home what they make.
Craft and community
A walk through Bagru’s printing lanes to see how the whole town is part of the craft, from carvers to washers to the drying yards, understanding how a craft lives in the families and town.
Camp life
Two nights at the bioreserve: shared meals, community-building, and evenings under the stars.
Increasingly, our young ones are detached from the source of their everyday things.
This camp is a chance to understand how natural pigments and fibres become the clothes they wear — and to meet the many people involved along the way, from farmers to skilled artisans to designers. Campers will come to know one part of this whole process closely, using field research, hands-on learning, and dialogue as their means of learning.
They walk away with a sense of where colour comes from, and the patience the craft asks for. The experience of watching a skilled hand, then trying with their own. Three days of living and working with other children. And a cloth they printed and dyed themselves.
Itinerary
Day 1
4:00 pm Arrival at the bioreserve; settling in and high tea
5:00 pm Community-building games
5:30 pm Foraging walk with our naturalists; understanding natural pigments in the landscape
8:00 pm Dinner and night circle
Day 2
6:00 am Optional walk for those awake
7:30 am Breakfast
8:30 am Depart for Bagru
10:00 am At Wabisabi Project: engaging in the colour-making process; studying the carved blocks
1:00 pm Lunch at the studio
2:30 pm Printing with blocks
5:00 pm Return to the bioreserve
8:00 pm Dinner; stargazing or a night walk if the sky is clear
Day 3
7:30 am Breakfast
8:30 am Depart for Bagru
10:00 am Community walk through Bagru: the craft in its lanes, families, and drying yards
12:00 pm At the studio: dyeing the cloth printed the day before
1:30 pm Lunch
3:00 pm Return to the bioreserve; closing circle
5:00 pm Departure