The region of Kutch in North Western India is rich in vibrant and highly skilled textiles crafts, as many of my previous posts have highlighted. What I haven’t had space to discuss enough so far though, is the embroidery of Kutch. Kutchi embroidery alone has a multitude of varieties, styles, motifs and colours varying from community to community and region to region. As well as being a form of employment, produced as part of the maker’s dowry and a form of elaborate decoration, it tells specific details about the maker’s and wearer’s caste, social status and religious affiliation. Girls are taught embroidery by their mothers at an early age, and…
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The traditional kediyun of Kutch – A review of LOkesh Ghai’s research
I have been following LOkesh Ghai’s research for his MA at Manchester Metropolitan University with zeal since we crossed paths at the University as I was completing my MA and he beginning his. LOkesh has a rich and varied career, graduating from National Institute of Fashion Technology in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, running his own textile design practice, teaching at Kala Raksha Vidhyalaya in Kutch, and in the last few years, taking part in various artist residencies in the UK. I have previously written about his first exhibition at Platt Hall Costume Gallery as part of the Global Threads and Cotton Exchange projects in Manchester. Before that, in 2011 Lokesh produced work for the…
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Book Review: Indian Embroideries II
Indian Embroideries 2 is the new Calico Museum publication by Anne Morrell. Gira Sarabhai tells us that at the start that the book is to be seen as a supplement to the book of the same name, part 1, published in 1973, and written by John Irwin and Margaret Hall. Having contributed some images for the book, I was sent a complimentary copy a few weeks ago. I was delighted to receive the familiar Indian stitched calico package, and the book inside was definitely worth the wait. The book cover closely resembles the original, using a similar font for the title, a black background and an image of an appliqued pictorial…
