Now I am not my mother’s
daughter when it comes to patience with a needle but you don’t grow up in a
family that runs a needlecraft business or with such a textile talented
mother without it having an influence upon you.
An influence which makes my latest destination one hell of a place to
spend money!! Western Gujarat and in
particular the Kutch region is a handicraft hotbed. There are hundreds of different tribal and
family groups here producing distinct and wonderful textile art which is sold directly
by the artisans, through cooperatives, or traded in the Bazaar.
I deliberately held back from
buying gifts in the knowledge that I would be coming to Kutch, so since arriving
I have been fastidious in contributing to the local economy. In fact Dr Ishmail Katri and family were
probably delighted at the fact there are so many Berkin women to buy for as I
cleaned him out of exquisite block printed silk earlier today! Dr Ishmail is the head of a family who for 10
generations have been printing natural fabrics from all over India which are then
generally exported or made up for premium retailers like FabIndia. In fact, unbeknown to me previously, I have
been wearing a couple of his fabrics since the wardrobe renewal I had to
execute in FabIndia Mumbai (see fat bottomed girl post!!).
On the way back from my
fascinating morning of block printing, I stopped at a house where the front
room was dominated by a huge hand loom.
This was no lowly village abode though, this was a modest palace, a master
Ikat weaver’s home. Haramshi Maheshwari’s
sarees start at around £100, typically retail between £200 and £400 and can
reach the thousands of pounds where weddings are the order of the day. Ikat is an amazing technique which I do
recall writing at length about at University, however for you guys: they tie-dye
the weft (goes across the width) yarn with a predefined pattern which is then woven
into plain warp (goes length ways) yarns creating distinctive “aztec” looking
designs. Double Ikat (the next step up) is
mind-blowingly detailed: both woven directions are pre-dyed to the chosen
pattern and then by magic incredible designs slowly emerge from the back of the
loom. An Ikat saree wasn’t really on my
shopping list and I really couldn’t afford another scarf having just stocked the
Berkin Boutique (the basic two-colour ones started at £30) so in the end I was
relieved to come away with a piece that will make a lovely table cloth …for a
little stool.
I am sat next to a big pile
of carefully chosen gifts and exciting bits fabric and embroidery that I intend
to play with when I get home. The pile
is already too big to carry to the post office but I am not going to think
about that until I’m done!
Kutch is the fascinating
area of Gujarat where I am currently and it also happens to mean cuddle in
Welsh (cwtch). If I could throw my arms
around any region of India it would be this one. It’s like the rest of Gujarat but there is a depth
of sincerity to the people here which is indescribable. People seem to rub along very happily with
less segregation than I have seen elsewhere between religions, tribes and social
status. In 2002 this fragile dessert
region was devastated by a massive earthquake, perhaps the aftermath gave
everyone a sense of solidarity or maybe it’s just too hot for animosity.
The little red taxi had all
of its windows open on the way out to the villages today but all it did was
spread the heat, fan-oven style, cooking me evenly from the toes up. In between
my turns on the spit, I spent money on beautiful things. Although today was mostly embroidery, it was
a real treat to sip homemade lemonade whilst I watched the pit-loom weaver create
high quality artisan craft on his beautifully traditional piece of kit.
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