Notes on Culture & Antique Art, Ethnic Decor & Vintage Fashion | Wovensouls Art Gallery
A little success. A little failure.
Success because most of the participants achieved their goals.
But what hurt was the fact that a small group did not achieve them completely.
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The project involves passing on traditional textile art skills from the older generation to the younger generation. In the earlier phase completed successfully, women learnt traditional embroidery from their elders. In this phase, women were learning to make headdresses and men were learning to make sashes from the only two surviving weavers in their community.
Although 100 percent of the participants worked on the sash and the headdresses, the women from one village completed the hat until stage 2 and did not finish the final stage.And though the men from one village did learn the simple weaves they did not master the complex zigzag weaves.
With sufficient time behind us since we started on these two micro projects, I could not use the excuse that we did not have time. It is a failure mainly on account of all involved beginning with me. Maybe if I had visited more often, this work would have remained in their active list of ‘things-to-do-this-month’. So in the future I will have to put in more effort and change the process of monitoring the progress.
Above I’ve spoken about the work left undone because that is what hit me the hardest.
And though I did not succeed in my project in totality, we did celebrate the achievements of all the individuals who did.
***
Here are some photos:
A- THE HEADDRESS
1. Headdress Construction
2. Group Photos of the Participants of the Headdress Project
3. Award Moments for the Headdress Project
B. THE MEN’S SASH
1. THE CONSTRUCTION & THE LOOM
2. GROUP PHOTOS OF PARTICIPANTS
3. AWARD MOMENTS
And finally some fun moments
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Moving forward:
There is little place in such a venture to sulk and ‘rutho‘ (hindi word) [nearest translation is = feel upset & sulk] about one’s failures. There simply is no one who will come and ‘manao’ (another hindi word) [there is no equivalent word – but it is like coax & cajole] us back to our feet.
And so, the only thing to do, is to find the inspiration somewhere and continue.
And so one step after the other we will continue. With the blessings of those who took interest in us and questioned us and listened and told us their own stories and offered a sounding board and made us stronger.
One step after the other.
To see more notes of the Astitva Project, click here.
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jm
Aug 2019