The Story Behind the Mithai Print

The story behind the Mithai print began over 3 years ago, when I was travelling around India. Everywhere I went, from Jaipur to Kolkata to Chennai, I saw sweets – in hundreds of different colours, shapes and textures. I started documenting them by taking photos (much to the amusement of shop keepers!)

Mithai Sketches

These photos were the starting point for felt-tip sketches in my travel journal. Later on, these sketches were scanned and traced, each colour as a new layer to create the separations for screen printing.

Hand Screen Printing

We began the process of sampling the design – doing several attempts to get the colours just right! These are 7/13 of the final ink colours.

Matching colours with a test print.

Hand screen printing, 4/13 layers down.

Hand screen printing, 6/13 layers down.

The final printed fabric, hanging up to dry! Hand screen printed in 13 layers, with a repeat of 13 rows and 13 columns, the resulting pattern has 169 drawings of different mithai.

The finished cushions; the mithai print paired with a candy stripe to mix our Indian and Western influences!