Utilization of Vegetable Texture as an Alternative Tool for Printing Plates in Block Printing Techniques and Textile Motif Design

One of the printmaking techniques is relief print, which uses the elevated part of a medium for printing. Usually, it uses medium material that is easily carved to create a high section and a low section (relief). Relief print can also be understood as using the texture of a medium. In designing textile surfaces, block printing is a technique that adapts the principle of relief print with a variety of designs engraved on the medium as a printing plate and then printed onto the fabric's surface. In Indonesia, block printing technique is not widely mastered by textile artisans, but in India this technique is developing as one of the textile industries, famous for its uniqueness in some areas, and its existence is protected by the Kingdom. In general, a variety of typical motifs are produced with this technique, such as geometric motifs, floral motifs such as paisley, and tribal motifs. Utilization of this relief printing principle can not only be developed through various motif designs on block printing plates. However, it can also be developed by utilizing everyday objects with unique textures, such as vegetables. Vegetables in the form of leaves or fruits that we often consume daily have interesting textures or reliefs to be used as textile motif designs if they are well-composed. Based on the block printing technique development, the researchers saw the potential for using this vegetable texture as a novelty of motifs in the textile design scene. This research uses a qualitative method with data collected by literature and studio-based exploration. Therefore, in this study, the author conducted several relief print experiments by exploring the texture of several vegetables and fruits, which then explored the composition of the prints to create interesting motif compositions. This experiment will use vegetable parts as relief printing media, some of which are the texture of leaf waves and veins, the texture of fruit seeds that are still attached, the texture of a cross section of a vegetable, and cross-sectional sections of a collection of the leaf stem.