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Textile Discoveries
Excavations at Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro have unearthed bone needles and wooden spindles, clearly suggesting that homespun cotton was used to make garments. In fact, fragments of woven cotton have also been discovered from these sites. Historically renowned for it’s textiles, India’s woven love story dates back several centuries. The first mention of textiles in India…
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Odisha Renaissance: Reviving Languishing Crafts
Along with Odisha’s famed ikats, there are many more art forms, designs and weaving techniques yet to be popularized and find a foot hold in the markets outside Odisha. We are already witnessing slow death of many such textiles – dhala pathar, kala pathar, siminoi, habaspuri, kusumi, original cotton Bomkai etc. In the post-liberalisation phase…
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The Regional Flavours and Global Language of IKAT Weaving
The word IKAT is derived from the Indonesian word Mengikat, meaning to tie. It is a technique that employs resist dyeing similar to tie and dye on warp and/or weft threads prior to weaving. Alteration to the bindings and dyeing in more than one colour and removal of all bindings produce multicoloured patterns on weaving.…
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For the Love of the Loom: A young textile designer finds her passion in the weaving villages of Odisha
Like most fashion school graduates, Gunjan Jain began working in the apparel export industry based in the urban centres of Delhi and Bangalore. But soon she was disillusioned with the industrial process of making clothes and their resultant commoditisation. Factory and assembly process of creating clothing lacked the collective union she wished to be associated…
Storytellers of Wonder 