Visit to Pilkuwa - Women on Wings

A first Women on Wings field visit to Pilkuwa  

Pilkuwa is a block carving centre 
in the northern textile belt including Meerut, Panipat, etc. 

on route to the small yet prosperous town 
there is a railway station named "chippiyan Buzurgh" (printing venerable) 
is there a still older town than this town 

large blocks, streets at right angles, semi- covered drains

the houses are a large block with the ground floor dedicated to the cloth business 
& no women in sight
traditionally a block carving & printing "industry", 
graduated to canvas for military use in the 20th century 

now acidic printed towels, bed linen, etc. 
& some great examples of fine hand skill

BLOCK MAKING :

 the outline & color fill of the one motifs

Each block motif may have 4/5/6/7 parts
they say upto 100! for the famous Sooraj Mukhi pattern

each new color, line & fill demands an individual block
the image above show only two of many

the block maker

the units are small 3X5' cabins, that house a shelf of blocks & maybe two carvers. 

this street is chippiyan ka Mowhalla ( Printer's Street) 

PROCESS 

hard woods like indian rosewood (shisham), teak, etc. are used 

blocks for printing are carved on the vertical face of the wood to ensure durability

generally wood is used along the horizontal grain

the vertical face is high in compressive strength to withstand the impact while printing 

Sajawat Handicrafts  is one of the larger manufacturers here, a unit hosting 10+ carvers, finishing equipments, etc.

wire inlay 

so fine the pattern hardly visible 

Recently Azhar Kamal & his uncle have been jointly awarded the Certificate of Merit in block carving from the Government 

exploring the skills, product

Dhanya vaad = Danke Well


Image Credits : Irma van Zand

Textures @ Nature Bazaar

Texture 1 : PEOPLE 

faces & black clothes 

 

Laila talks to the students

While talking to the new batch of fashion students Laila observed that current trends are not complimentary to our climate - dark color, thick jean, etc. 
so true all in blue/black slacks - Zara clones 

instead a sari drapes over an individual in an individual style 
there is a wisdom in traditional clothing with respect to the context & individual styling possibilities 

with Pooja, Ratnakar 

Himanshu Verma 

Laila 

Shelly 

Texture 2 : ROUGH

Felting - Patchwork

Sunrise Arifa, studied Design Management at CDI (Craft Development Instittue)
started her business "Incredible Kashmiri Crafts" with a project of CDI - renewing the patch work technique in felting
Running her third successful year at Nature 

sabi grass, Odisha

Texture 3 : SUBTLE

Sujni - Archana Kumari 

crewel on namda - Sunrise Arifa

applique & stitching - Kala Raksha

beauty of double firing - Giriraj Prasad

Texture 4 : 3D

hollow vegetable shell lamps- Chattisgarh 

Terracotta - Giriraj Prasad

Texture : SMART 

Elephant Poop paper - Haathi Chaap 

Diwali greeting from Hauz Khas Village

A new range of colored & natural wooden gift boxes 
inspired by the Hauz Khas monuments & Persian motifs 
for Diwali 

shisham box 120X120x75mm 2 drawers Mehrab motif 

Persian Jaal motif

The monuments at Hauz Khas

Window details at Hauz Khas monument

the colored range is in Steam beech wood, which lends itself to a smooth clean finish 
& possibility of many colors 

The entire range is available at the Kamala shop