Emma Price: Fine artist, natural dyer, traveller and weaver...
A journey through life following my heart in search of hand crafted uncut cloth. It started with a spinning wheel... and journeys to India, leading me off the beaten track and back again. Into the Himalayas looking for the pashmina nomads, and out to the deserts of Gujarate in search of pit looms. I found myself returning to India again and again, working as a farm volunteer in Ladakh, setting up a silk spinning unit in the Kullu valley and eventually working for FabIndia in Delhi. I eventually returned to my roots and spinning wheels in the UK to raise my son Harry, where In The Wool Shed grew out of a container on my sisters farm - creating natural dyed yarns and leading textile trips to India & Bhutan.
Cloth Atelier came about as my cloth collection from India began to grow, the perfect excuse to visit weavers and printers across India... to support the makers behind the handmade, to honour their talent by sharing these glorious pieces of uncut cloth. It is important to me that each and every piece of cloth is "respectful". Respecting the maker, and respecting the planet where possible... I buy directly from the makers, visiting their studios when I can. Hand made cloth is the jewel in the crown of India, the history, the variety and the skill involved is unfathomable, passed down from generation to generation... our master block printer is 4th generation. But skills are dying out, as younger generations head to the cities and the powerloom becomes more lucrative. It is my goal to help save these ancient sustainable craft skills, as an anti-dote to fast fashion... and to better understand the implications of consumerism on our planet through such organisations as the Better Cotton Initiative (better cotton.org), because hand crafted cloth is a valuable gift as ancient as the hills... and deserves our respect. And so my journey continues...
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"The art of hand block printing on to cotton cloth is thought to have existed in India for over 4500 years. The discovery of geometric patterning and advanced dye technologies in the excavated ancient cities of the Indus Valley suggests that this form of textile decoration may be as old as cultivation of the cotton plant." Anokhi Museum of hand block printing - Ajrakh patterns & boarders. AMHP publication 2007
www.mindfultextilejourneys.co.uk
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