Pan India artisans to exhibit variety of ethnic weaves

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, April 3, 2016 : Artisans from all over India have gathered at Mangaluru to exhibit their ethnic weaves under the theme ‘Weaves of India,’ at Loyola Hall.  The exhibition, that includes display of traditional pure silk and cotton products, will remain open till April 10 between 10.30 am and 8.30 pm.

The Gramin Hastkala Vikas Samiti, founded by a group of artisans, designers, social activists, academics and environmentalists, attempts to promote exquisite traditional skill and creations of the weavers and encourages them to be contemporary and economically relevant.   Artisans from 14 handloom-weaving states – including Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal – and many designers from metros working in collaboration with the weavers are displaying more than 1,50,000 variety of their work at the Loyola Hall.

More than 100 designers and weavers have been part of this year’s exhibition, which includes sarees, dress materials, items of silk and cotton, fashion jewellery and home-furnishing designer clothes from each region of the country.  Coimbatore and Kancheepuram silks from Tamil Nadu, Bangalore Silk, Crepe and Georgette Sarees and silk materials from Karnataka, Kalamkari, Pochampally, Mangalgiri dress materials, Uppada, Gadhwal, Dharmavaram and pure silk Zari sarees from Andhra Pradesh, Tussar, Kantha and Bhagalpur silk dress materials, block handprint, khadi silk and cotton dress materials from Bihar are among those on display.

Visitors can also shop decorative carpets from Mirzapur, which includes regular hand-knotted and hand-tufted carpets in wool along with cotton and woollen durries and kilims.  Apart from this, there is Khurja pottery, Tikamgarh brass idols, Firozabad glassware, dry flowers from Nagaland that come along with wooden inlay, Madhubani paintings, Kashmiri carpets, Sharanpur wooden furniture and wall hangings.

Jayesh Kumar Gupta, organiser of the exhibition and sale, said that the main social objective of the handloom exhibition was to promote weavers and encourage and provide a market to the handloom industry.