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Kutch hand weaving
This craft creates the basic basket weave with an extra weft added for making designs. Shrujan’s contribution has been to introduce a variety of fibres, textures, colours and designs to help create new and contemporary expressions of traditional Kutch hand weaving.
Mashroo
This fabric is created using the satin weave technique. Silk and cotton yarns are interlaced; cotton yarn is used for the weft, which is the horizontal yarn and silk is used for the warp, which is the vertical yarn.
Mushroo fabric in its royal and opulent avatar had disappeared from Kutch. Many individuals and organizations including Shrujan have played a role in its revival.
Shrujan’s contribution has been to reintroduce real silk yarn and to revive traditional striped mushroo patterns.
Tie-dye
Tie-dye is a term used to describe a number of traditional resist-dyeing techniques. These include stitching, twisting, folding, pleating, crumpling fabric and binding it using string, rubber band, clamp and other devices.
The fabric is then dyed. The areas which are tied or constricted resist the penetration of the dye and, when opened up, reveal unique and unusual patterns.
There are three types of tie-dye techniques practised in Kutch: the centuries-old, traditional bandhani; the Japanese-inspired Shibori and the contemporary clamp technique. Shrujan supports innovations in all three techniques.
Shrujan has taken the tie-dye of Kutch to prestigious markets and platforms such as India Art Fair and shown the world that in the hands of master tie-dyers, this craft can be playful and sophisticated; rainbow-hued and monochromatic; traditional and avant garde.
Hand block print
The traditional method of hand block printing involves dipping carved wooden blocks in dye and then stamping them on fabric to create designs. Often, two to three blocks are used within each other to create complex and intricate designs.
Many types of hand block printing are practised in Kutch. One of the most famous is Ajrakh. It is a resist block printing technique which uses natural dyes such as indigo and maddar.
Kutch is home to some of the most renowned masters of Ajrakh. These living treasures have taken this ancient craft to the world stage. Several international designers have earned fame and prestige by using of this craft in their haute couture collections.
Shrujan supports Ajrakh in various ways: it collaborates with this craft sector to expand the Ajrakh design language; promotes its craftspeople not only as skilled technicians but also as creative artists; and provides resources and opportunities to gifted young designers so that they can explore their love of Ajrakh to their hearts’ content.
Discharge print
Discharge printing is another hand block printing technique. Carved wooden blocks are dipped in a paste and stamped on pre-coloured fabric. The paste is made from safolite, soda ash and maize gum; liquid vat dye is also added to it. The paste thus becomes a bleaching agent as well as a colourant.
As the paste dries on the fabric, the design is barely visible and this is just one of the reasons that make discharge printing a challenging process.
After the paste has completely dried, the fabric is carefully rolled up and steamed.
The heat and moisture from the steam takes away or discharges the fabric colour and, at the same time, adds another colour onto the stamped design.
Many unpredictable factors such as atmospheric humidity impact this printing technique. The printer himself does not know what the design will actually look like, till the roll of fabric is finally opened up. This uncertainty, this luck by chance aspect, is the magic of discharge printing! Kutch was well-known for this mysterious and magical craft despite it being a labour-intensive and tedious technique. From the 1980s however, the craft began to decline. Chanda Shroff reached out to the only discharge printing family in Tera village to lend her support and ensure that the craft stayed alive.
Shrujan’s support for discharge printing continues. Its Design Studio carries out innovations in several aspects of the craft including creating discharge-printed fabrics that are fashioned into high quality products. The endeavor is to safeguard and revive this precious textile craft; and, increase customer patronage so that more and more craft families can return to the craft and earn a dignified livelihood from it.
Pottery
Kutch was once famous for its terracotta pottery. Master potters shaped local clay on the potter’s wheel to create unglazed earthernware vessels. These were painted, as was the tradition, by the women in their families. Traditional water carriers as well as large size forms of elephants and camels also featured in the potters’ repertoire. So integral was pottery to Kutch that there was at least one family of potters in every village.
In earlier times, Kutch terracotta pottery was also traded with the outside world from the sea ports of Mandvi, Mundra and Lakhpat.
The role of pottery however began to decline when the centre of sea trade shifted from Kutch to Bombay. It also lost its domestic importance when modernization came to Kutch and a variety of mass-produced materials became easily available.
With no local or international markets, only a few families were willing to practice pottery. They focused primarily on creating water carriers. However, a few master potters such as Buddhachhacha Kumbhar continued creating large size animal forms.
Chanda Shroff decided to work with Buddhachhacha’s son and grandson. She wanted Kutch terracotta pottery to regain its stature as one of the renowned crafts of Kutch.
She studied the intricacies of the craft and elevated the quality of its every aspect.
She inspired and motivated Usmaan Ganni, Buddhachhacha’s grandson to take up the family craft, and even try his hand at new forms.
Usmaan is now a sought-after potter who works from Shrujan’s Design Studio. He paints his terracotta creations and has developed an ingenious technique to stone polish them so that they look like glazed pottery.
Slowly, terracotta pottery is gaining popularity. More and more potters are shaping traditional as well as contemporary forms. The most popular product however, is still the gowmukh water jug that Chanda Shroff had designed more than a decade ago.
Beadwork
Beads have an ancient global history. In Kutch, beads and beadwork are used along with stitches and other elements to embellish garments and ceremonial objects. Beadwork also features as elaborate accessories.
A gifted young beadwork designer named Anvi Shah was keen to work with the rural women of Kutch who practised beadwork. Anvi’s arrival motivated Shrujan to collaborate with her in contributing to this craft with innovations in raw material, technique, design, colour ways and new products.
Shrujan introduced Anvi to the women in the villages of Hodko, Bhirandiyara and Shinay Nagar. These women were primarily from the Meghwaad Maarwaada community that has a special relationship with beadwork.
The women took to Anvi. They were open to new ideas and matched her vision with their skill at precision work on a miniature scale. What emerged was a range of necklaces with a contemporary flair. They were an instant hit.
Within a few months, the earnings of the craftswomen increased dramatically.
More and more women now embrace this craft to create jewellery and
accessories for young, urban Shrujan-lovers.
