Kaveh Naqashi

Kaveh's workshop has stamped qalamkar cotton since his grandfather's time, and he still carves every printing block himself from pear wood — a dense, fine-grained timber that holds the small details of the floral motifs he repeats across a length of fabric. Carving a single block can take a week; a full set for one design, with separate blocks for outline and each color, can run to a dozen. Printing is entirely by hand: he loads the block with natural dye, positions it against a chalk-marked grid, and presses down with his full weight, moving block by block down the cloth until the pattern locks into register. Colors come from madder root, pomegranate skin, and indigo, fixed by repeated washing and sun-drying rather than chemical mordants. He works in the same building his grandfather did. His textiles are reached and paid for through a screened export partner outside Iran.

Kaveh carves his own printing blocks from pear wood and hand-stamps qalamkar cotton the way his workshop has for three generations, reached and paid through a screened export partner outside Iran.

Iran (via intermediary)

He wants a length of cotton to carry the same hand-pressure and register his grandfather worked to, block after block.