Shivalaya has been hand block printing cotton in Jaipur, Rajasthan, since 1991. What started as a small printing operation has grown into a full workshop of 25+ artisans, led by founder Anil Parashar, who has spent more than 25 years in the trade.
One roof, start to finish
Blocks are carved in-house. Colours are mixed in-house. Fabric is stamped by hand, one motif at a time, then cut and sewn under the same roof.
That matters more than it sounds. Most Jaipur "manufacturers" are really coordinators — printing goes to one unit, stitching to another, finishing to a third. Every handoff is a place where a colour drifts, a delivery slips, or nobody can tell you why something went wrong. When the block carver and the tailor work in the same building, a problem gets found in the room it was made in. It is also why we are comfortable taking on wholesale and custom manufacturing orders rather than only retail.
What hasn't changed since 1991
We still print on 100% natural cotton (organic options available) with azo-free, water-based dyes. Azo dyes are restricted in the EU on safety grounds, so this is worth confirming with any Indian supplier — not only us.
Every order is made to order. Nothing sits pre-made in bulk waiting to be sold, which is why production takes roughly 7–10 working days before it ships worldwide by DHL Express. Slower than pulling stock off a shelf, and deliberately so: it is what lets a buyer choose a colourway rather than pick from what happens to exist.
What three decades actually buy you
Longevity in this trade is not sentiment. It means a block library built up over thirty years rather than bought in; artisans who have printed the same motifs long enough to catch a misregistration before it runs down a full length; and a workshop that has survived enough seasons to still be here when you want to reorder next year. For a boutique building a range around a print, being able to reorder the same design in three years is not a small thing.
What we make
Fabric, women's dresses and kaftans, kids wear, kantha quilts, bedsheets and block prints for the home — see the full range in our cotton fabric collection.
Curious what a working day in the workshop actually looks like? Read a day inside our Jaipur workshop. Buying at volume? Start with working with a block print manufacturer.