Pinai founders
Akriti & Nisha together — studio or workshop, natural light, portrait orientation
Jaipur · Est. February 2020

Crafted by hand.
Carried with love.

We are Nisha and Akriti — a mother and daughter from Jaipur and Pinai is our quiet act of preservation. A love letter to the block printers, the natural fabrics and the unhurried beauty of things made by hand.

We make hand block-printed home textiles like dohars, quilts, throws and accessories.

पिनाई
Pinai · /pɪ.naːɪ/
"The act of hand quilting"

In the colloquial Hindi of Rajasthan, pinai is the word for hand quilting — the patient, rhythmic craft of bringing layers of fabric together with nothing but thread and time. It felt like the only possible name for what we were trying to build.

Pinai story
Artisan hands pressing a block onto fabric. Warm golden light. Portrait ratio.
Our Story

Born in Jaipur.
Built for the world.

Growing up in Jaipur, block prints were simply part of the air we breathed. They were in the curtains at home, the dupattas in the wardrobe, the table covers at every family gathering. The art wasn't in a museum — it was lived in, washed, folded, passed down.

But we noticed something quietly disappearing. The ancient craft of hand block printing was being pushed aside by faster, cheaper alternatives. The artisans who had spent their lifetimes perfecting a single motif were finding fewer and fewer takers for their work.

Pinai began in February 2020 as our answer to that — a brand that would take this heritage and translate it into something a modern home anywhere in the world would want. Not as nostalgia, but as genuine design. Minimal. Considered. Built to last.

The People Behind Pinai

A mother. A daughter.
One shared obsession.

We didn't set out to build a brand. We set out to make something we ourselves wanted to bring into our home.

Akriti Agarwal
Portrait of Akriti. Natural, warm. 4:5 ratio.

Akriti

Co-Founder · Creative Direction

Raised in Jaipur, Akriti grew up with block prints as a natural part of everyday life — in the home, in the wardrobe, in the city's streets and markets. Pinai is her attempt to share that upbringing with the rest of the world, through objects that are both beautiful and quietly radical in their slowness.

Nisha Agarwal
Portrait of Nisha. Warm, natural. 4:5 ratio.

Nisha

Co-Founder · Product & Quality

As someone who moved to Jaipur in 1993, she spent a lifetime surrounded by Indian textiles - first as a homemaker who understood instinctively what made a fabric worth keeping and later as the co-founder who brings that same discernment to every piece Pinai makes.

The Craft

48 hours.
One block.
No shortcuts.

Hand block printing is not a fast process. A single teak wood block — hand-carved with a pattern that may have been in a family for generations — is dipped in natural dye and pressed onto fabric with careful, measured pressure. Once. Again. Again. Every repeat slightly imperfect. Every imperfection proof of the human hand behind it.

Each piece at Pinai takes forty-eight hours to complete from first print to finished textile. We work directly with artisan families in Jaipur who have practiced this craft for generations. No intermediaries. No compromises on materials or method.

We use 100% natural Indian cotton — mulmul, muslin, and fine weaves chosen for how they feel against the skin as much as how they hold a print.

48h
Per piece
100%
Natural cotton
2020
Founded
Pinai workshop
Full workshop scene. Landscape 16:9.
Block printing close-up
Carved block detail. Square 1:1.
Block printing in action
Artisan mid-print. Square 1:1.
01
Our Vision

Quiet luxury for homes across the world

To bring the quiet luxury of handcrafted Indian textiles into homes across the world — preserving heritage while shaping a more thoughtful, beautiful way of living.

02
Our Mission

Thoughtful design. Traditional craft. Natural fabrics.

To create thoughtfully designed home textiles using traditional hand block printing, crafted in Jaipur by skilled artisans. We work with natural fabrics, embrace the beauty of handmade imperfections, and design pieces that bring warmth, character, and quiet elegance into everyday living.

Traceable Sourcing

Every piece is traced back to the artisan family who made it and the specific natural fabric it was crafted from. No anonymity in our supply chain.

Artisan Direct

We work directly with block printing families in Jaipur — no middlemen, fair wages, and a genuine ongoing relationship with the hands that make our work possible.

Zero-Waste Studio

Fabric offcuts find new life as pouches, travel kits, and accessories. We design our collections to generate as little waste as possible from the very first cut.

Bring a piece of Jaipur home.

Each Pinai piece is made in a limited run — when a block wears down or a fabric runs out, that colourway is gone.

Shop the Collection