Category: Textiles

  • Punjab: an Amalgam

    Punjab: an Amalgam

    Famous for its scenic landscape, mustard blooms, ancient fertile lands, religious diversity and gregarious people, Punjab, despite it’s beautiful mountains and rivers was not always as blessed! Punjab has always been the center point of civilizations due to its strategic location as the entrance to the Indian subcontinent. Foreign invaders like the Persians, Greeks, Scythians and Kushanas came…

  • Celebrate Womanhood with Jaypore

    Celebrate Womanhood with Jaypore

    International Women’s Day: How Women Artisans are Crafting the Stories of their Own Lives She feeds her family, is nearly always the primary care-giver, works the fields to produce half the world’s food supply and contributes to nearly two-thirds of the world’s cumulative work hours – so says the United Nations. That’s what a woman…

  • In a Qila

    In a Qila

    How Qilasaaz is effecting change in the lives of women artisans of Mahmudabad. The backbone of the erstwhile world of feudal privilege and opulence was always an invisible army of skilled craftsmen/women and artisans. They ensured a splendor and an aesthetic richness that was often breathtaking. Their efforts affected every aspect of life then and…

  • Breathe New Life into your Home!

    Breathe New Life into your Home!

    “I believe that trends must have the capacity to stay relevant for a long time; at least a few years, at any rate. Otherwise they are not worth the money and the trouble. Accessories of course, are the exception to the rule because that is the easiest way of updating a space and giving it…

  • Jaypore Upcycling Week

    Jaypore Upcycling Week

    What happens to that pretty cotton saree when it thins with wear and washing? Those scraps of fabric that get cut and discarded by the ‘master ji’ during the hand tailoring process or on an automated assembly line? The strips of leather that don’t fit into the design of a chic bag? Most of the…

  • Ajrakh Tales – Re-Contextualizing an Age Old Textile on the Contemporary Scene

    Ajrakh Tales – Re-Contextualizing an Age Old Textile on the Contemporary Scene

    The elegant symmetry of geometric patterns, the waltz of Indigo & madder dyes, and the minor imperfections that add to its allure… this is what forms the syntax of an ancient craft like Ajrakh. Like a skilled raconteur, the standard 3 meter length of an Ajrakh print tells tales of its invigorating history, the many…

  • Mubarakpur Weaves a Success Story

    Mubarakpur Weaves a Success Story

    When we talk of our commitment to revival of dying or languishing hand looms and handicrafts, we believe that change is happening, right now, right here and that it can only go up. Our confidence is based on many instances of craft revivals across the country; far reaching changes brought about by the collective efforts…

  • Re-Worn: Getting a New life

    Re-Worn: Getting a New life

    A weaver sits on his loom patiently weaving ‘Khesh’ – a weaving technique that uses new yarn in the warp and strips slashed off old sarees in the weft. The weaver chooses these strips randomly off a pile sitting next to him; the result is a stunning piece of fabric where the colors of the…

  • All That Diwali Jazz…

    All That Diwali Jazz…

    Just in time for that last-minute setting, between dancing flames of the diyas, the colorful rangolis, the fragrance of flowers and incense sticks, sweet sweets, here are décor ideas to give you an instant Diwali celebration swag. So, are you ready for the biggest and the brightest festival of them all? To make your festive…

  • Inside Story: The Jaypore Muslin Bags

    Inside Story: The Jaypore Muslin Bags

    The technologies of the most beautiful things are simple. The simplest silhouettes make an avant garde garment, a memorable piece of music portrays a simple thought, a complex computer language aims to solve a simple but critical problem. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” – Leonardo Da Vinci, 16th Century polymath. It’s the simplest things in…