Dabu is one of the oldest block printing technique, but unfortunately these days dabu printers are much lesser in number. Only few artisans practice this beautiful, age-old craft.

The word 'DABU" comes from Hindi word 'dabana' which means to press and it's very labour intensive mud-resist hand-block printing technique. The base material is washed for three long days to clear off the surface impurities. Then the next step is to prepare the mud-resist mixture. It needs lime, jaggery, gum and a very special kind of stocky mud collected from local ponds. Next the mixture is applied on fabric with wooden blocks and dried in sun. After that the fabric is dipped into natural dye and then washed with clear water to get off the excess dye and mud; but these four steps lick blocking, drying, dying and washing are repeated several times depending on the complexity of the pattern and the number of colours used.

Hibiscuss aims to work with this age-old craft in two different clusters and promises to bring back at least some of its lost glory.