Tag: Kantha
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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The Untold Tales of Khesh Weaving
The khesh weaving process is simple. The warp is with new yarn and the weft is with strips of thin cloth obtained by tearing old sarees length wise. Because of the tradition of khesh weaving in Birbhum in the last many years, a market for old sarees has come up in Amodpur, where old sarees […]
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Reborn: Recycled Designs for a Sustainable Lifestyle
Gudri is a fine layered coverlet which was originally created in Gujarat by putting together patches of fabric, usually old saris that were carefully saved for the purpose. The fabrics are layered and held together by the use of a running stitch, painstakingly done by hand in parallel lines running from end to end. The […]
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7 Indian Women of Style & Substance
These legendary women represent the quintessentially Indian sense of style by pairing handcrafted sarees with elegant accessories in their unique way…read on! 1. MS Subbulakshmi Image Courtesy: The Hindu & karpuramanjari.blogspot.in A renowned Carnatic vocalist and the first Indian singer to receive the Bharat Ratna Award, the divine voice of MS Subbulakshmi is an inspiration […]
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Katna’s Kantha: Crafting Lives in Murshidabad, Bengal
Slowly one stitches together the layers of frayed fabric Slowly, step by step, does one tread the path Slowly and steadily one scales the mountain – Sanskrit shloka; oral tradition Kantha embroidery is a distinct style applied to the creation of coverlets. Traditionally the Lep kantha of old, involved poor village women sewing together layers […]
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Kantha – An Intimate Witness to the Spirit of Womanhood
“Spreading the embroidered quilt She works the livelong night, As if the quilt her poet were Of her bereaved plight. Many a joy and many a sorrow Is written on its breast; The story of Rupa’s life is there, line by line expressed.” (From ‘Field of the Embroidered Quilt’ – a translation of ‘Nokshi Kanthar […]
Storytellers of Wonder 