Dyeing came to Orawa from Moravia and Silesia, and the Germans were usually the first printers here. They used the batik technique where a design is imprinted on the fabric not with paint but with a special paste that does not allow paint to enter the fabric during the dyeing process. Various vats, tables and printing blocks and inks were used for this purpose.

Printing moulds were made of two wooden parts. The bottom layer (with a pattern to be printed) was made of a harder wood (such as pear, walnut or maple) while the top layer (handle) was made of a pine or fir plank.

The most important and most difficult task was to prepare the insulating pulp on which the final dyeing effect depended, which is why the recipes were closely-guarded professional secrets. We know that there were two types of such pulps: one in the form of wax, clay or starch that, thanks to their structure and impermeability, prevented the paint from reaching the isolated part of the fabric while another type of insulation was based on chemical knowledge – the pulp acted as a strong oxidising agent causing the decomposition of the indigo. There were also recipes that combined both variants using, for example, gum arabic, lead acetate, lead sulphate, copper sulphate, alum or simple lard with a sufficient amount of water.

Thanks to the pulp, the canvas was printed in a variety of patterns, suspended from a special frame, and immersed in a vat of an indigo solution. When the fabric was removed from the paint, it took on various shades of blue through to navy blue. The duration of soaking and dye density influenced the hue. The next task was to rinse the fabric in a special solution or in water with sulphuric acid and to wash it in order to remove the remaining pulp. Then the fabric was dried and mangled by hand or with the use of large, horse-powered wringers.  Dyehouses used large quantities of water, which is why they were usually located near rivers, just like our dyehouse from Orawka.