Ameeshi Goenka

RUG MAKING

Beginners • We started off with watching a small

video on basic weaving and then we got our sun boards, made it into a frame and just started.

• (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbtKnvc_9No)

• What I had in my mind was that I wanted to try every technique that I saw in the video. I did not have a set pattern in mind but just went about exploring, making mistakes, rectifying them, learning and creating something spontaneously.

Frame work • We got out frames from the workshop,

and the first step was wrapping it with white cotton thread and made wefts using the same for 1 inch to start off.

• I started with my design based on the inspiration, painting by Razza. I had and made use of woolen yarn in abundance for it which I had purchased the previous day from Raja Market.

• The patterns were taking forever to form initially but as I went on with it for exactly a week I felt great! I got a hang of it and it went really quick and the outcome was exactly as pictured.

• I did not have all the patterns pre-planned. I formulated one pattern at a time and tried different techniques. There was a lot of trial and error and lots of undoing and redoing.

• In my initial stages I followed the inspiration but towards the end I just went with my flow and made my own patterns.

Sathnur Village

• Sathnur village was a beautiful three hour tempo ride for us.

• On reaching there we saw ladies working on the looms with banana fiber, making Sathnur the only place in the south to work with them.

• It was really surprising to know that they did winding/twisting for 14p/m. not even for a rupee. I almost felt like their labour and skill is being manipulated by the industry.

Handloom Work

• It took me about 3 days to make it a little less than 3ft in length. I used magazine paper strips and some colours of regular woolen yarn and others acrylic yarn.

• It was a simple process of using alternating frame numbers. First 1 and 3 frames were put down and the in the next row 2 and 4 and so on.

• I started off experimenting with different materials to see what looked different and was weave-able on the loom.

• My jute ropes were too thick and rough so it wasn’t easy to work with it and the regular plastic ropes was not aesthetically appealing.

• Paper was easy to weave with and gave a nice texture and looked simple and wool the wefts came out very neat and fine.

• The paper and wool combination worked out the best for me since I did not want to make regular mats using coconut leaf sticks.

• My Inspiration was taken from belts, bag and T-shirts that have magazine prints on them. They are usually in pink, baby pink, grey, beige and other such lighter tones.

Thank You