Our journey to explore more craft and to reinvent handmade clothing has taken us to new weaving cluster of Chhattisgarh that is Jagriti bunker samiti, Bhanwarpur.
About weaving cluster
Jagriti bunker samiti is based in Bhanwarpur, Mahasamund district of Chhattisgarh. It is decades old weaving cluster having expertise in jala weaving and buta work. Earlier weavers of this cluster used to do cotton weaving but now considering the high profit in silk they are drifting toward kosa silk weaving as well. Most crucial thing about the current status of this cluster is that many weavers are migrating to other jobs due to irregular income generation through weaving and many weavers are preferring to weave kora plain cotton, the order given by government body as it assures regular income generation. Weavers a quite skilled and have expertise in their craft, kora plain weaving is kind of regressive move that will lead to demise their skill.
Intervention of Bebaak
We have done some textile design development with the weaving cluster considering their expertise in Jala work. Our intervention has been done on cotton weaving. The reason we have opted for cotton fabric and jala work are
- Cotton is one of the most versatile textiles and suits to Indian scenario. The weavers need to see the possibilities of the cotton woven by them.
- While they can weave solid, checks and stripes, we found jala work is quite exclusive and elegant that can be the point of difference for this cluster.
- In buta wor,k they have been weaving old traditional motif that required to restructure.
- We at Bebaak want to experiment with the possibility of work with this cluster in long-term that include many factors such as quality, versatility, perseverance of weavers to work on the new thing.
Jala weaving and new design execution
Jala weaving is complicated and intrinsic weaving process. Developing motifs on loom through weaving required well pre-planned designs on graphs paper as each motif is crafted with proper count and arithmetic. We have opted for three motifs, round floral, lotus, and geometry in the jala weaving.
The Glimpse of woven fabric
Limitation and issues
Though Chhattisgarh inherits many crafts and weaving culture, the state lacked required marketing and designing intervention that has made everything packed in time zone. Weaving cluster lacks many basic arrangements that may help young enterprises and designers to work smoothly. Here are some limitations we have faced
- Issue related to dying and color palette: It is tough to get the exact color palette as per your plan. The cluster doesn’t have a dying unit, they get it done from other places in Chhattisgarh. The dying unit giver limited color option to work with.
- Consistency in weaving: Though weavers are expert in their work it is the slow process to make them realizes the value of consistent and quality of work.
- Timeline: Being working in the craft sector we know it takes time to develop handcrafted textile but extra time has been taken in operations to arrange the resources related to weaving, dying and experimentation.
Hopefully, we and weavers of Bhanawarpur will overcome all the operations related issue and become more confident to try in experiments.
Here is lookbook of the collection: Mehtaab, developed from handwoven cotton buta worked fabric from Bhanwarpur.
About Mehataab Collection: Same as moonlight Mehtaab collection brings soft, luminous and soulful feel along with its silhouettes. Incepted in the loom of Chhattisgarh, It is a collection of cotton apparel made from delicate handwoven fabric with buta work. Crafted with precision the collection celebrates vibrant and rich heritage through its handmade clothing range. The collection includes cotton dresses, kurti, crop top, skirt and palazzo for women.
