Blue dying since 1638!
The workshop and shop of Einbeck’s Blue Dye Printing are situated in a historic timber-framed house on the square Möncheplatz.
The dying workshop was founded by Hans Wittram during the Thirty Years’ War in 1638. Around 1700, the son of the founder tried the blue dye printing technique for the first time in order to be able to launch a product that could compete with the coloured calico printing from abroad. Ever since, white patterns on blue or respectively coloured background have been printed here by means of the traditional hand-blocked craft for resist-printing.
The first printing blocks, also called model, had to be prepared by themselves from pear wood. This type of wood had the necessary hardness, dense surface and robustness against wet conditions.
To produce the blue dye prints, a sticky printing substance is printed by hand with wooden blocks onto the white fabric. On the impressed areas, the fabric does not absorb any colour in the colouring bath and the white pattern becomes visible after the printing substance has been removed in rinsing baths.
The workshop was owned without interruptions by the Wittram family from 1638 to 2005. This way, more than 800 printing blocks could be preserved until today. Nearly all stylistic periods may be found here, from biblical motives to printing blocks created during the Baroque period up to textile patterns from art déco.
Blue Dye Printing Einbeck today still produces different products such as table cloths, bags, scarves, pillow covers or oven gloves in ten different colours. The mentioned products and a lot more are available in the shop.
In 2018, the old hand-crafted blue dye printing was included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Find more information on Blue Dye Printing Einbeck!
Get more information on guided group tours of the production facilities of Einbeck’s Blue Dye Printing!
The dying workshop was founded by Hans Wittram during the Thirty Years’ War in 1638. Around 1700, the son of the founder tried the blue dye printing technique for the first time in order to be able to launch a product that could compete with the coloured calico printing from abroad. Ever since, white patterns on blue or respectively coloured background have been printed here by means of the traditional hand-blocked craft for resist-printing.
The first printing blocks, also called model, had to be prepared by themselves from pear wood. This type of wood had the necessary hardness, dense surface and robustness against wet conditions.
To produce the blue dye prints, a sticky printing substance is printed by hand with wooden blocks onto the white fabric. On the impressed areas, the fabric does not absorb any colour in the colouring bath and the white pattern becomes visible after the printing substance has been removed in rinsing baths.
The workshop was owned without interruptions by the Wittram family from 1638 to 2005. This way, more than 800 printing blocks could be preserved until today. Nearly all stylistic periods may be found here, from biblical motives to printing blocks created during the Baroque period up to textile patterns from art déco.
Blue Dye Printing Einbeck today still produces different products such as table cloths, bags, scarves, pillow covers or oven gloves in ten different colours. The mentioned products and a lot more are available in the shop.
In 2018, the old hand-crafted blue dye printing was included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Find more information on Blue Dye Printing Einbeck!
Get more information on guided group tours of the production facilities of Einbeck’s Blue Dye Printing!
