“This dupatta took 40 days and went through 11 stages to be made. It’s from Srikalahasti”, says Durga Prasad, showing me a floral-hand-painted Kalamkari cotton dupatta. I am at the Hands of India (HOI) exhibition at Satyanarayana hall.
Prasad, who works with HOI, is associated with hand-block printers and handloom weavers for the past 16 years. The hand painting is done using a special wooden pen, and the process includes boiling, washing and treating the fabric with goat’s milk. “Smell this. It has got a fragrance”, he says and he is right. “It is unique to this hand-painted fabric”, he adds. The dupatta comes in cotton for ₹1700 and in Chanderi for ₹2200.
Telia Rumal Dupatta
A beautiful black and white dupatta with Telia Rumal prints then catches my attention.
“We are trying to revive Telia Rumal designs. It is from Koyyalagudem village in Andhra Pradesh. This particular variety of double Ikat weave requires a lot of work. This particular piece took 20 days to be made” Prasad explains and we move on to a brown Khadi sari with a temple design border, that took two weavers working simultaneously to create. It’s because the border is also woven with the sari.
The HOI exhibition has kurtas, saris, skirts, trousers, dresses, dupattas and jackets with Phulkari work (Punjab) , Kantha work (Bengal), Chikan work (Lucknow), Kashmiri embroidery, Appliqué work, mirror work, Azrak prints (Gujarat), Kalamkari (Andhra Pradesh), Bandhani (Rajasthan) and a lot more varieties of embroideries and prints.
A double sided jacket with brown Kalamkari print on one side and a blue Azrak work on the other interests me. I also spot jackets with print on one side and plain on the other.
Sanjay Pandit with his works
Sanjay Pandit an artiste from Bengal shows me a kurta he has embroidered. “I took three hours to do this, and it’s my own design.” Pandit, used to work with his father at a printing press, and started doing embroidery after his father passed away. “I moved to Delhi, where my brother was working in this industry. He taught me and that is how I started in the year 2006. I am doing embroidery for more than a decade now and I love it.”
Showing me a green and orange Andhra Mangalgiri cotton sari on which he has done the mirror work, he says “This work took me slightly longer time. Three days. ”
Amit Viswas, the production controller of Hands of India says, “We stress on the quality, and work with artists all over India. We have fabrics made both in handlooms and power looms, but the prints and embroidery are by hand.”
It is noteworthy, says Viswas, that the readymades have a four-inch margin and can therefore be altered if necessary.
There are two changing rooms at the venue and two tailors in attendence in case any customer needs his or clothes to be altered. Kurtas range from ₹890- ₹2200 and saris from ₹1200 – ₹8000. Western wear comes in the range between ₹800- ₹2000. There is also running fabric, mostly ikat.
The exhibition is on till August 8 from 9.30 am- 8.30 pm at Satyanarayana Hall, Tatabad.
Call 9464167833, 9045505465 for details.
