It is a story of a generation of artisans of Gujarat’s Kutch region passing on a textile legacy, a tale of painstakingly done unique embroidery patterns that signify each tribe and the story of a craft revival effort by an organisation since 1969. Weaving together all these stories under a single platform is ‘Srujan’ - a not-for-profit organisation based in Kutch – that has brought the unique traditional embroidery works from the region for the first time in the city at an exhibition at Lions Community Hall, Ramnagar.
Each and every product displayed at the exhibition has a story to tell. For a layman, a fabric with Kutch embroidery would seem like a beautiful and intricate work but delve a bit deeper into it and you will realise the fine difference between each embroidery style – Jat, Aari, Soof, Kambhiro and the communities they represent.
“Each embroidery style is done by a particular community. Srujan works with 12 such communities involving 3,500 crafts persons who make these distinct embroidery styles in 120 villages of the region,” said Dutta Sawant, designer-cum-marketing executive of Srujan, the organisation that has been working for craft entrepreneurship since 1969.
At the exhibition, 16 different styles of Kutch embroidery are displayed in a variety of textiles and fabrics in saris, blouses pieces, dupattas, stoles, hang bags, clutches, kurtas and wall hangings.
The design and production team of Srujan provides the fabric and prints the designs on them which are then given to the traditional crafts persons in the villages to make the distinct embroidery style. “Without changing the traditional designs, we modify the patterns a bit to suit the market needs and hand it over to the artisans,” Sawant said. Some of these intricately done embroidery designs take more than a year to complete, involving a whole family of artisans who meticulously stitch the embroidery styles. For instance, the exhibition has a satin silk saree with elaborate Jat embroidery done over a period of a year costing Rs 80,000. The artisans are given 35 to 45 per cent of the sale by Srujan. Interestingly, every product has the name of the ‘Karigar’ (artisan) mentioned in it.
Among the unique embroidery patterns is the Soof embroidery, done with the surface satin stitch from the reverse side of the fabric without any pattern being drawn on it.
This particular design requires geometric precision as no paper patterns or reference books are used and rely on the embroiderer’s (mostly women) skill and imagination to guide the embroidery.Srujan’s main centre is located at Bhujodi village at Bhuj Taluka and promotes the craft by organising countrywide exhibitions.
The exhibition is on till April 22 and the timings are 10.30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Sixteen styles of Kutch embroidery
are on display at the exhibition
