धूप छाँव light & Shadow

MR21162
Kaleidoscope patchwork | Textiles woven by Tai Khampti weavers

Colour to me is a dynamic dance of light and shadow. When colours start to blend into each other, shapes within shapes reveal. Patterns are formed. These patterns are patchworks documenting the flow of light and shadow. I like this dance.


Why I want to make these patchworks?

This requires mastered skill of patience, perseverance and precision. Hours, days and weeks go into putting small patches together.

The focussed intention that our tailor Gurmel’s face takes on whenever he sets himself to stitch another of these is a moment of silent exhilaration we share. He admits most often, he never thought he could make this. He also admits he is most keen to learn. And his heart is hard working. He wants to improve. He wants to do new things.

When he makes these patchworks, they first take birth in our heart. I visualise. He captures that visualisation. I intuitively choose colours, he technically binds them together. Playing with sacred geometry, we are never able to predict what the final mood of the patchwork will be like. So, we started enjoying this limitation. We now have a pact, we raise up the patchwork and see it only once it is completely put together. Before that we watch it stitch by stitch coming together, shifting shapes.

Some triangles fall in place and some tell us “keep doing, you are perfecting the act of doing imperfectly till it all begins to fall in place.”


About Tai Khampti weaving:

My association with Tai Khampti tribe began in 2012 when I expressed my wish to work with weaves of their community. She said she would involve her family- her own mother, mother-in-law and sisters-in-law to experiment making some weaves together. She mentioned that since they had not woven saris before, this would involve some trial and errors. Her family started to weave the more intricate patterns after about two years of trials. What started out among the family members in the year 2012, soon extended itself to about 30 homes of Namsai district.

In 2013, we brought about 500 kgs of cotton yarn to Arunachal Pradesh and took it as a drive to sensitise weavers towards using cotton over synthetic yarns for their indigenous weaves. Amla has championed the work we carried out with Tai Khampti weavers for more years than I could ever imagine. She began engaging untrained weavers, single mothers, and older women to engage in weaving plain, checks and striped fabrics. Rather than buying plain handloom fabrics from mainland, we began creating livelihood opportunities by weaving less intricate weaves as a medium of training new weavers and convenient income for trained ones.

Buyer Empowerments

Intrinsic
Value
Involves precision stitching skills and understanding of geometry for desired placements.
Creative
Aspect
Intricate patchwork created with monotone oil colours. The choice of colours is as deliberate as intuitional.
Heft-Feel
Moderate
Weather/ Mood
Pleasant- okay for summers to nippy evenings
Longevity
Not fragile
Care
Dry Clean only; Needs “Airing” in shadow, not direct sun. do not wring.
State
Sari is ready to wear. All saris come with blouse fabric(s). No fall/ beading required. The blouse used in photoshoot is for representation only and may not be the same blouse available with the sari. The blouse fabric given with the sari will be more in alignment with the aesthetics intended.

Drape
Statement piece, celebratory, vibrant
Concerns
Addressed
Supports non-industrial tailoring skills.
Faith in up-skilling unskilled artisans.
Fabric scrap re-purposing.
Slow production of weaves that are made by artisan at home in available time- supporting farming lifestyle.
Livelihood opportunity for amateur weavers, single mothers, older women who cannot farm.
Design handling leadership training, inventory keeping, costing and parcel handling collaboration with Amla
Awareness drive to choose natural yarns over easily available synthetic yarns.
Plain and stripe textiles woven with Nang Amlavati in Arunachal Pradesh
Cotton yarn from Salem, Tamil Nadu
Patchwork and Stitching by Gurmel Singh, Jalalabad, Punjab
Beadwork by Param, Bathinda, Punjab
Disclaimer:
Imperfections in the weaves reflect handmade
Irregularity in the dyes reflect natural process
Innocent spots in the textiles reflect being homemade
A work of nature cannot be sterile and error-free
A choice to still buy what we make is a step
Towards supporting original culture
Of people
Of nature
Of craft

A celebration of humanness.
Mora Collective 2025
designed by: MIDTOAN
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