Kutchi artisans prod Mumbai awake

In an age where synthetics seem more popular than hand-woven earthy textures, old fashioned weavers from the border regions of Kutch are attempting to prod the city's glitterati awake with a workshop to highlight their time worn skills.

"Machines can never give such fine work and I will never ever work on a machine," says Vinod Vanwar, 28, a Kutchi weaver of shawls, who demonstrated his magic at a workshop on Monday.

He earns barely Rs1,000 a month by selling around 30 to 40 shawls in the markets of Bhuj, in the Kutch region of Gujarat, but it's the creativity, the feel of rough and fine fabric, the simple basic colours of nature and the joy of sitting in front of his hand loom and interlacing yarns that compensates.

"This has a value of its own", he says.

Vanwar's labour of love was there for all to see at the The Art of Weaving demonstration at The Culture Shop, Hiranandani Gardens, Powai.

"The earthquake in January 2000 left many weavers even more impoverished and despite a lot of NGOs helping them to restart their livelihood, there is still so much untapped talent in the villages of India that needs support," says Preeti Hiranandani, director, The Culture Shop.

Her travels across the country takes her to these remote villages which truly need that special help and promotion, exposing this talent to the city folk whose attitudes much change, she says.

The regular handloom shows have become events for cheap bargaining whilst the weaver earns a pittance, she said.

Hiranandani wants to do her bit to promote Indian heritage and Indian craftsmen. Vanwar lives in a remote desert village of Dinara near the Pakistani border. His dwelling is a mud hut but he has no complaints.

His only grouse is that the government has not provided a proper workshed.

This apart, "I'm quite content with my earnings for my family of one child, three brothers and parents. Our expenses in the village are not much."

The shawls of Kutch may not be the same as the sophisticated and stylish handwoven products of Kashmir, he says "but the charm of shawls from Kutch is that they can be washed at home and the colours do not run."

He certainly wants his son to follow in his footsteps but not without a proper education. His young niece, Pramila Vanwar, a second year Arts student in Bhuj who also wants to continue her education, is a more likely inheritor of his craft.

Like most women of Kutch, she, too, is adept at embroidery and mirror work while two of her three brothers are engaged in weaving.