The Making of Taru Jaipur’s Padma Gad Jaal Cushion Cover

It takes a lot of heart and hard work to handcraft every Taru Jaipur product. The making of our collection is just as colourful and detailed as the final output that you love so much.

We firmly believe that every consumer must know about what they use and how it’s made. So here we take you—step by careful step—through all that it takes to conceive and deliver one of our bestsellers—the Padma Gad Jaal cushion cover. 

From the first idea to the final product, here’s a lowdown of all that goes into its making:

The inspiration

Though we invoke nature in everything we do, we get inspired from all kinds of things around us—food, monuments, folklore, languages, art, music, films. The inspiration for the Padma Gad Jaal cushion cover, however, came from a celebrated, glorious and not-so-unexpected source—the Summer Gate of Jaipur’s opulent City Palace. Also known as the Lotus Gate, it features the summer bloom in illustrious abundance and serves as the inspiration behind two of our major prints—the buta and the jaal.

Making the block

This bit of the process is pretty barebones. We first make the sketch, which we give to our block artisan in Sanganer, who traces it on a butter paper. We then brainstorm and make changes wherever necessary and eventually finalise a design. We then make the block.

The Padma Gad Jaal pattern uses six colours and therefore it needed as many blocks—one each for background (gad), outline (rek), the solid colour of the leaf and the flower (chattha), and for the leaf and the flower’s detailing (chirai).

We try them all to see what fits best. The expectation is for it to all come out together seamlessly. But if it doesn’t or if there is any other discrepancy, the block is sent back to the artisan with suggested changes. After a successful trial, the block is soaked in mustard oil for 2-3 days to make it stronger. Since the blocks are made of sesame wood, they expand and can mess up with the design if not soaked in oil.

Getting colours right

After having soaked them in oil and cleaning them, we next decide the material of the fabric and do colour trials. Because this design has six colours, it took a lot of back and forth (7-8 trials taking over a week) to arrive at the exact tone for each. Getting this step right is imperative because even a slight variation in the tone—more so in the case of a major colour— can change the overall look and feel of the product.

Oftentimes what gets printed turns out to be completely different from how you see it in your head. A lot of factors come into play. Sometimes it takes just adding a bit of white to get the right shade. Other times, the measurements get really minute. And then there are days when the whole batch is discarded and redone from scratch.

Printing

Once the final sample is ready, we print it, one layer after the other. First gad (it requires the maximum colour and is susceptible to most variations), then rek, followed by chattha (of leaf and the flower) and finally chirai. We print one layer, dry it, then repeat the process until the entire design is made. Once all of it is printed, the cloth is hung on the ropes to dry. The smaller the piece, the quicker it is to print and dry.

Curing

Once dry, the fabric is cured (its colour fixed) with heat through a curing machine, which takes two people to operate. After that, the material is washed with plain water and sometimes a softener to even its texture. 

Quality check

The fabric is then sent to a team of women for quality check. In the first round, they inspect the print (its colour and design) and if the cloth has suffered any damage. It next goes to the pattern master for cutting, then for stitching, finishing—which primarily involves cutting loose threads and buttoning if required—and finally for a second round of quality check. This time the size of the product, its stitching, finishing and measurements are carefully monitored. From here, it goes for ironing. We then put the tag and voila, we’re done. 

Why a Taru Jaipur cushion cover?

It takes at least a month from conceptualization to getting the cushion cover ready for shipping. A month of careful, considered ideation, planning and execution among a dedicated, committed team of artisans, designers and manufacturers to get you to fall in love. 

Moreover, the back of cushion covers is usually different from their front. Sometimes, it’s just a plain white cloth. But our cushion covers have the same print on both sides. No cost cutting. No making do. Plus, our covers have the zip on top, ensuring that you can use your cushion on both sides without any hindrance, without knowing or caring which side’s the front. 

Our cushion covers are available in 2 sizes

—16’’x16’’ (Rs. 579) and 18’’x18’’ (Rs. 649)