Textile Stories

BAULE KITA OF COTE D’IVOIRE : The Strip Woven Handloom Textile of central Cote D’Ivoire
BAULE KITA OF COTE D’IVOIRE : The Strip Woven Handloom Textile of central Cote D’Ivoire
On a chance visit to my favorite store in Cape Town’s Famous Kalk Bay – Unesandla Crafts located inside the Indoor Market I fell involve with a cloth which once... Read more...
The Charkha: A Project for Heart Change
The Charkha: A Project for Heart Change
A Handloom project from the desert of North Western India which aims to promote ancient wisdom and spread ideology of decentralization through social enterprise Read more...
BOGOLANFINI – MALI’S MUD CLOTH
BOGOLANFINI – MALI’S MUD CLOTH
Commonly known as Mud cloth, the Bogolan cloth or Bogolanfini is a mud resist dyed cotton cloth produced by the women of the Bambara of Mali. The literal translation is:... Read more...
KHASA BLANKET OF THE FULANI
KHASA BLANKET OF THE FULANI
The Fulani are one of the largest ethnic groups of Western Africa and the Sahel. Unlike many other regions in Africa, the area which the Fulani inhabit, mostly in modern... Read more...
KUBA CLOTH – THE RAFFIA VELVET OF CONGO
KUBA CLOTH – THE RAFFIA VELVET OF CONGO
Kuba cloth is a raffia cloth woven by the Bakuba people of modern day DRC. The fibre is peeled from the leaves of the Raffia Vinifera Palm and woven into... Read more...
ETHIOPIA’S ANCIENT COTTON TRADITION
ETHIOPIA’S ANCIENT COTTON TRADITION
From its position on the horn of East Africa, Ethiopia has been a crossroads of trade and cultural exchange for millennia. This history of influence and development has been deeply... Read more...
PANO D’OBRA OF CABO VERDE
PANO D’OBRA OF CABO VERDE
THE HANDLOOM TRADITION AND OF CABO VERDE AND ITS ROLE IN THE BUILDING OF A NATION ​ Cape Verde, officially named the Republic of Cabo Verde, is a nation which... Read more...
MOHAIR FROM THE CAPE : SOUTH AFRICA’S LUXURY FIBRE
MOHAIR FROM THE CAPE : SOUTH AFRICA’S LUXURY FIBRE
Mohair is the fibre of the Angora goat which originates from Ankara region of Turkey and is known a the ‘noble fibre’ for its softness, fantastic insulation properties and remarkable... Read more...
THE BARRYDALE HANDWEAVERS
THE BARRYDALE HANDWEAVERS
The Barrydale Hand Weavers was established in 2007 in the eponymous Barrydale, a town on the border of the Klein Karoo known for its idyllic tranquility and offbeat artistic community.... Read more...
KPOKPO – SIERRA LEONE
KPOKPO – SIERRA LEONE
The traditional handloom cloth of the Gola and Mende tribes of West Africa covered by modern day Liberia and parts of Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali... Read more...
THE BASOTHO BLANKET
THE BASOTHO BLANKET
The Basotho Blanket is the characteristic daily dress of the Basotho, the peoples of Lesotho, a small country entirely landlocked by South Africa. These blankets act simultaneously as the brand... Read more...
ABAKHWETHA AND THE XHOSA BLANKET
ABAKHWETHA AND THE XHOSA BLANKET
The amaXhosa are an Nguni people, the second largest ethnic group in South Africa and have predominantly populated Eastern Cape of South Africa from around the 1500s. They are a... Read more...
RELICS OF WAZIRI WOVEN CULTURE
RELICS OF WAZIRI WOVEN CULTURE
While trawling through the basement storeroom of a vintage textile dealer in Jaipur I stumbled across Waziri shawls for the first time. As an avid lover of handloom and specifically... Read more...
TRAINING ARTISANS IN DESIGN AT SKV
TRAINING ARTISANS IN DESIGN AT SKV
On my trip to Bhuj I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days with the amazing Judy Frater. She is a really incredible personality and I feel very... Read more...
THE TEXTILE GALLERY AT THE HOUSE OF MG
THE TEXTILE GALLERY AT THE HOUSE OF MG
In one of the very first conversations I had when I first arrived in Delhi, I expressed my passion for handworked textiles and I had been told that Gujarat was... Read more...
THE CHARAKA TRUST – A TRIP TO THE KHADI ASHRAM OF THE WESTERN GHATS
THE CHARAKA TRUST – A TRIP TO THE KHADI ASHRAM OF THE WESTERN GHATS
I first encountered Charaka in Mysore. I was looking for local cotton production of which I had heard there was lots but was struggling to find any handloom beyond the... Read more...
WomenWeave: Our Process
WomenWeave: Our Process
When I followed the legendary threads back to Maheshwar, a tiny town in Madhya Pradesh in September last year, I was lucky enough to spend some of my time volunteering... Read more...
STORYLOOM FILMS – WEAVERS OF TRIPURIA
STORYLOOM FILMS – WEAVERS OF TRIPURIA
THE TRIBAL WEAVERS OF NORTH EAST INDIA Recently a link to these films was shared with me. They are such heart warming stories told so beautifully, so I thought I... Read more...
THE COTTON OF WOMENWEAVE : A WORD ON LOCALITY, SUSTAINABILITY AND ‘ORGANIC’
THE COTTON OF WOMENWEAVE : A WORD ON LOCALITY, SUSTAINABILITY AND ‘ORGANIC’
I’m currently (September 2018) spending a little time with the incredible WomenWeave Trust in Maheshwar, MP (If you have’t come across them already, go have a quick look here and here). I promise... Read more...
THE DROWNED LOOMS OF KERALA : HANDICRAFT AND THE PROBLEMATIC SAVIOUR COMPLEX
THE DROWNED LOOMS OF KERALA : HANDICRAFT AND THE PROBLEMATIC SAVIOUR COMPLEX
This years flooding in Kerala has wreaked havoc and destruction across the state, of which I hope everyone is well aware. Among the millions of effected where the handloom weavers... Read more...