The Long Read...

The power of handcrafted textiles should not be underestimated, shaping generations, over continents and colonial empires. Spanning 4000 years, block printing has remained an integral element of handcrafted textiles. Historians place the origins of block printing in China 200 AD, spreading throughout Asia, India, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia and eventually to North Africa and Turkey by the 10th century. Eventually arriving in Europe via the silk road. The Diamond Sutra, a book

Come with me on an unforgettable journey in a country who prises its handloom industry, celebrating its remarkable back strap weaving traditions, that still produces their national dress, still worn with pride for most formal occasions

Ladakh, high up in the Himalayas covered in snow for more months than it is not, a place of prayer flags, Buddhist monasteries and Pashmina nomads. Weaving and spinning were part of the average winter household activities, producing blankets & woollen garments, from sheep fleece much needed in the harsh climate, rugs from soft yak fibres, ropes and grain bags from the stronger yak hair. Lena (Pashmina) fibre was traded and woven by the Kashmiris who were able to remove the

Chhipa Chhapa Chhapai Community Motifs Process On one of my trips to Bagru this year, a village on the outskirts of Jaipur, that specialises in natural dye block prints, I was delighted to be introduced to the Titanwala family from the Chhipa community who have gone to great lengths to preserve and honour traditional block printing, with the publication of a book and the establishment of the Titanwala Museum. Hand block printing skills passed down through the generations

My love and connection to khadi cloth started back in the late 80’s on my first trip to India, an amazing journey by train that took us round much of the country on a 21 day rail pass. It was on a visit to the Gandhi museum in Delhi I learnt of the extraordinary political power of a simple Charkha. Learning to spin in my mid teens, a fascination with natural fibres I can’t fully explain but something I had even as a young child when I begged for a sheep skin rug for my bi

The highly prized bold geometric forms using indigo, madder and printed mordants, are the ingredients to these easily recognisable Ajrakh prints. Traditional block printing carried out by a limited group of master printers, the Khatari community of dyers and printers in Pakistan, Kachchh in Gujarate and Barmer in Rajasthan, A complex process of printing geometric patterns, using natural dyes and mud resist technique Traditionally worm by Men, as a lunghi,(a little similar to