I was delighted to receive the TSA Student award to attend and present my research at the biennial symposium which this year was held in Vancouver, Canada. It was my first TSA symposium and first visit to the city and I was impressed with the attention to detail in the organisation and schedule, and the variety of inspiring, thought provoking and quality papers by scholars and practitioners responding to the symposium theme ‘The Social Fabric Deep Local to Pan Global’. Many of the papers and keynotes did well to respond to issues relevant to the locality of Vancouver, such as decolonisation, reconciliation of First Nation communities and the repatriation of…
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Mountain Weaves – Building Livelihoods
The mountains of North India are a perfect getaway from the bustle, pollution and heat of the cities. And you can easily reach them from Delhi. I travelled up to the small village of Kasiyalekh in the Himalayan foothills, in the state of Uttarakhand to visit a social enterprise called Kumaun Grameen Udyog (KGU). I took a 5 hour train from Delhi to Kathgodam (you can go from here or the near-by larger town of Haldwani) and then a bus which skillfully wound its way up the steep and narrow lanes running up the mountain for about three and a half hours. I was greeted at the bus stop at…
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The role of traditional crafts in contemporary India: an interview with Rahul Jain
Feature Image: Drawloom for patterned silk velvet, Rahul Jain’s workshop, Varanasi, 2015. Photo courtesy Textile Art of India, New Delhi ‘I describe my work as a continuation of a heritage, a legacy, that is 2,000 years old’ (Rahul Jain, personal communication, June 2016) I had known about Rahul Jain’s work for a while, read some of his huge range of extensively researched books on Indian, Iranian and Turkish textiles, desperately trying to understand the complex weaves they document, and had heard about his inspiring work reviving ancient weaving techniques in Varanasi. An interview with the weaving connoisseur published by Live Mint revealed some of his views on craftsmanship and crafts in India,…
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The Charm of Chanderi
In Ashok Nagar district in northern Madhya Pradesh state, nestled in hills, surrounded by forests and lakes and scattered with historic monuments, is the charming town of Chanderi. It is one of two towns in the state famous for its weaving heritage – the other is Maheshwar, which you can read about here. I took the awkward journey from Maheshwar where I was staying long term for my research, which involved a bus to Indore, a delayed train from Indore to Ashoknagar and from there a local bus along badly maintained roads (or damaged by recent rains), to Chanderi. At one point we passed a bus that had tipped off…
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Exhibition: Krishna in the Garden of Assam
Assam is one of the seven (or arguably eight) states in North East India, set in the Brahmaputra basin, tucked away just south of the Himalayas, attached to mainland India only by a thin strip of land. Textiles here hold more similarities with neighbouring North Eastern states and with other countries further east and in South East Asia, which they are geographically and culturally close to, than woven textiles in mainland India which have distinctly different traditions and cultural approaches. The tribal textiles of Assam are woven predominantly by women for whom learning to weave and becoming a proficient weaver is a rite of passage and a required attribute to be…
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Five P: Handloom Revival and Innovation in Tamil Nadu
This article is written by Uthra Rajgopal, who worked with Five P to develop their website and promotional material during a textile exploration trip around India last year. An art history post- graduate and currently a lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, Uthra is conducting research into Khadi and Handloom in India, and will be presenting at the forthcoming Textile Society of America conference in October. Above Photo: Mr.Kandasamy on a jacquard loom in the Five P workshop. Photo: Ruth Clifford Chenimalai is a small town about 25 km from Erode, at the centre of the ‘cotton belt’ between the textile hubs of Coimbatore and Salem in Tamil Nadu. The area has a long…
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South India travels: Chennai and Kanchipuram
This post is part of a series on textile travels in the South of India, others include Hyderabad and Sircilla in Andhra Pradesh. Chennai has a lot to offer for the art, craft or textile lover. It is home to the Crafts Council of India that supports crafts through exhibitions, education, marketing and more. The Kalakshetra cultural foundation promotes the study of the performing and visual arts. It was founded by Rukmini Devi Arundale – ‘the Institution stands testimony to her dream of creating a space where the essence of Indian thought would find expression through artistic education,’ and standing in defiance with ‘vulgarity and commercialism’. Notably, as I later write about my visit…
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Contemporary Gadwal Saris by Vinay Narkar
Gadwal is a small town in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh. It has long history of handlooms. The Gadwal sari has strong links to the Kornad saris of south India, which Kanchipuram is most well-known for today. Both share similar techniques and designs including the interlocked weft technique used for the borders. The kundi technique used in the Ilkal sari that I have discussed in a previous post, also shares close similarities, and as Vinay mentions below, belongs to the same group of saris as those from Solapur, Vinay’s home town. Gadwal saris, like many across India usually carry a temple design locally known as a reku. Local women often wear the…
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Weaving in Kutch: a guide (part 2)
This post focuses on learning the different techniques used in Kutchi weaving and a bit about the traditional products woven for the local market. Part one looks at the preparatory stages of weaving in Bhujodi. Read it here. Once I had completed my muffler and cut it off the loom it was time to start learning new types of weave. This week Rajesh Vishrambhai Vankar was to be my teacher. Rajesh is the youngest son of the renowned master weaver Vishrambhai and brother of Shamjibhai – also a well-known and respected master weaver. He graduated from Kala Raksha Vidhyalaya in 2009, and now works for the family business in various different…
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Learning to weave the Kutchi way
For 21 days starting on the 28th December I learned the basics of weaving under the masterful and patient guidance of four skilled and experienced weavers from Bhujodi village in Kutch. The course was organised by Somaiya Kala Vidya whose primary aim is to teach design education to craftspeople of Kutch (find more information on SKV here and here). The ‘Crafts Traditions’ courses are a side project that aim to extend the awareness and appreciation of Kutch’s crafts further afield, welcoming visitors from all over the world to come and learn a new skill and also gain a deeper understanding of the crafts’ context. In three weeks I learned the whole…
