The Only Brand Doing Handblock Printing of Local Northeast Designs: Anisha Hussain of Kamrup

My name is Anisha Hussain, and I work in handblock printing from Kamrup district in Assam. I have been doing this for four years — but in those four years, I have built something I believe is genuinely one-of-a-kind in this region.

I learned the craft in Jaipur, from a teacher there. When I came back to Assam, I brought that technique with me — but I printed it onto the patterns and designs of the Northeast. That combination does not exist anywhere else. As far as I know, we are the only brand in Northeast India doing handblock printing of local designs from this region.

We specialise in home furnishing: customised curtains, table runners, cushion covers, bed runners, and table lamps. We also make fashion — men's kurtas, eri jackets, eri mufflers and stoles, and mekhela chadors and cotton sarees. The whole process, from the first block to the finished product, takes at least 15 to 20 days, and the climate affects that too.

We work with handwoven fabrics from right here in the Northeast. We connect with local weavers, give them yarn, and they produce the fabric for us. For curtains, pricing is usually per metre — finished with stitching and printing in cotton is around ₹1,200 per metre; eri silk runs to about ₹3,000 per metre.

We have a small factory where we train artisans. Most are on contract, but two are permanent. The scarcity of skilled labourers is our biggest challenge — and because we are in an urban area, it is harder to find people willing to do this kind of careful, time-intensive work. But we are not slowing down. And we are not planning to keep this knowledge to ourselves — we are happy to teach others who show genuine enthusiasm for the craft.