There is a buzz of excitement in the region of Kutch as Somaiya Kala Vidya prepares for the convocation and fashion show of this year’s design graduates on 9th January in the village of Bhujodi, just 9 km from Kutch’s capital, Bhuj. In my previous post I wrote about the jury. The awards the jury decided will be presented during the convocation, and select pieces of the graduates’ final collections will be modelled on the runway. The graduates also got the chance to mingle with the Bombay craft and design enthusiasts and potential new clients at Artisans’ Gallery in Kala Ghoda for an exhibition of their collections from 21st –…
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The 2015 Design Graduates from Kutch
Today is the last day of the 2015 Design batch of Somaiya Kala Vidya (SKV)’s exhibition at Artisans’ gallery, Mumbai. I attended the final class – Presentation and Merchandising, as part of my PhD fieldwork. There were eleven students on the course, four weavers, four ajrakh artisans and three bandhani artisans. Before this class, students had attended Colour, Basic Design, Marketing, Concept and Communication and Finishing and Collection Development. Each class lasts two weeks and they are spread over a year. During the weeks in between each, the students develop work at home based on what they have learned in the previous class. In Presentation and Merchandising, the students learned to display their…
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The Ajrakh block printing of Kachchh, India
Against the dull canvas of the Kachchh desert the rich and bold colours of the textiles are strikingly displayed. The millennia old tradition of weaving and dyeing textiles originated in this Indus Valley region in the North West of India, and is still in abundance today. For a typical Kachchhi man or woman, their cloth is an essential everyday commodity and decoration as well as a symbol of their identity. Whether woven, embroidered, printed or tie-dyed, the textiles worn by a person in this area can reveal a multitude of details about their caste, gender, age, religious affiliation, marital status and economic standing. The highly skilled and patterned ajrakh block-printing…
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The process of ajrakh block printing according to Ismail Mohammed Khatri, Ajrakhpur
I have discussed the ajrakh block printing of Kutch, India in a few of my blog posts but have not yet written a post containing the details of the process (for details on the general background, read this post). In traditional ajrakh cloths, local artisans and clients could recognise the maker through the appearance of the cloth and process he had used. Each ajrakh artisan uses his own variation on the process. I learnt the process below from the renowned Ismailbhai of Ajrakhpur, who along with his sons Sufiyanbhai and Junaibhai, I am indebted to for their continuing help with my MA research. 1. The cloth is washed in water to…
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Block printing article for The Quilter
I was pleased to see my piece on the wonders of block printing in Kachchh in The Quilter magazine this month, and I actually enjoyed reading it again!
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Pracheen: Block printers of Mumbai
As usual I’ve been back home for a week now and while looking back through photos and videos I’m already wanting to be back in India. Because I flew into Mumbai this time, I decided to spend a couple of days there to go to museums, galleries and meet people I had been e-mailing about my research. Unfortunately I hadn’t planned it that well, as arriving early on a Saturday morning meant lots of places were closed. One of these places was Paramparik Karigar which I was really disappointed about missing out on. However I was lucky enough to receive a lot of help and contacts from Neela who works with Paramparik. I…
