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…
-
-
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…
-
Kharad Weaving of Kachchh
A display of geometic and pictorial patterned dhurries adorns the walls of weaver Tejsibhai Dhana Marwada in the village of Sanjotnagar, near Bhuj in Kutch,. Woven into the kharad (Sindhi word for carpet) on the most basic and ancient of looms, are the stories of these weavers’ lives and experiences. Some of these narrative pieces were initiated by Carole Douglas for her exhibition Zindagi jo Vanat – The Weave of Life. Tejsi explained to us the stories depicted in the pieces. One tells of the Marwada Meghwal community migration. They came to Kachchh from Marwad in Rajasthan about 600 years ago, hence their name Marwada which accords a sustained sense…
-
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…
-
Kota Doria
I recently visited Kota on my way from Jaipur to Maheshwar keen to learn about the Kota Doria sari weaving tradition. I was kindly helped by Victoria Singh, a local resident and founder of the Kota Heritage Society. After accompanying her on a few errands around town – she is involved in a lot of local charity and heritage work, she took me to the village of Kaithoon which is about fifteen kilometres from Kota, and the main centre for weaving in the region. Victoria Singh and Ritu Jain write more on the kora doria in an article for Hand-Eye magazine. We first went to meet Badrun Nisha, the secretary of the Women’s…
-
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…
-
The story of Spitalfields’ Silk
This summer has seen a celebration of the history and heritage of Spitalfields in East London in the form of two festivals: Spitalfields Music Festival and the Hunguenot Summer 2015 organised by The Huguenot Society. I joined a tour run by the Huguenot Society around the streets where the weavers and cloth merchants lived. I was amazed at the many layers of history in one small area – we must have only covered a square half-mile! The Huguenots were French Prostestant refugees who fled to London and other parts of Britain to escape persecution in France in the 16th century. The first Huguenots arrived in London in 1548. The majority were…
-
Textiles in Depth: Handloom Weaving in India, part four. End of the journey
The journey to Maheshwar was long and exhausting. A long bumpy bus journey to Indore, a three hour wait for a bus then a three hour bus journey to Maheshwar. But it didn’t take long to realise whey I’d made all that effort as I walked up the streets and heard an orchestra of weaving looms! My guesthouse was the cheap and comfortable Hansa Heritage Hotel, situated at the bottom of the Ahilya fort which dominates the town. The room was surprisingly large with a traditional warm and earthy decor including Bagh block-printed bed covers (Bagh is a town not far away from Maheshwar which is renowned for its natural-dye and…
-
Textiles in Depth: Handloom Weaving in India, Part Three
While in Rajkot, I called the other contact that Shamji had given me – Chandrakant Patel, who I was told managed an organisation that produce Khadi – a handspun and handwoven fabric, in Gondal, just 40 km from Rajkot. I asked if it was ok for me to come and visit for my research. About an hour later I received a call from Durgesh Jadeja, who informed me he worked as the fashion designer and PR at Udyog Bharti – the name of the organisation. He said he lived in Rajkot and was travelling to Gondal the following morning by car and would I like a lift. He also said…
-
Textiles in Depth: Handloom Weaving in India, Part Two
When I visited Shamji in Bhujodi (see previous post) and told him of my research, he gave me the names and contact details of a few weavers I should visit in Saurashtra, the region to the south of Kutch in Gujarat – an area I had not yet visited. The first was Laljibhai Parmar who lives in Rajkot and is a member of an extended family of Ikat weavers. Laljibhai is not actually a weaver, although he hails from a weaving family, but his extended family are practicing weaving. Laljibhai makes the phanni – the reed section of the beater that beats the weaving in between each passing of the shuttle.…
