Ladies weavers energy Creyo, the brand new entrant at Crafts Council of Telangana’s CCT Areas, Hyderabad

A mannequin sports activities a handloom sari and crop prime by Chitrika
| Picture Credit score: Particular Association

Veerabasweswari from East Godavari district and Sandhya from Ponduru, Srikakulam district, are among the many ladies handloom weavers who’ve travelled to Hyderabad for the inauguration of Creyo, a retailer on the Crafts Council of Telangana premises CCT Areas. Creyo will inventory saris, materials and clothes woven by the weaver clusters in East Godavari, Srikakulam and Narayanpet, supported by Chitrika basis.

The ladies beam with delight after they spot saris woven by them on the retailer. “Many people come from households of weavers. I grew up watching my mom and different ladies work on the loom and I took to it naturally. Weaving is a lifestyle for me, my mom and my mother-in-law,” says Sandhya. Her speciality is the kuppadam weave of Srikakulam, which is an interlocking approach to design temple borders in contrasting colors. 

The kuppadam of Srikakulam is totally different from that of East Godavari wherein the interlocking approach performs up contrasting colors, usually with out the temple border. 

Each the ladies point out that a number of the saris woven by their clusters had been worn by actor Ritu Varma within the Telugu movie Varudu Kavalenu. “Among the Baahubali crew members additionally picked up our saris,” they add.

Chitrika basis has been working with ladies weavers in Srikakulam, East Godavari and Narayanpet. The label Chitrika, which till now tapped shoppers via their on-line portal (chitrika.in) and exhibitions hosted by Crafts Council, hopes to widen its attain via the Creyo retailer. Vijaya Switha Grandhi, who based the label in 2005, says Creyo will act as an umbrella label that can inventory merchandise of Chitrika in addition to merchandise from small agriculture and dairy farm items within the close to future. 

In the previous few years, Chitrika has roped in textile designers and vogue graduates to tweak the standard weaves and make them extra interesting to city patrons. Switha and textile designer Samyuktha Gorrepati, who has been intently related to the organisation, say that the design interventions have helped increase the color and design palette whereas retaining the distinct id of the native weaves.  “For instance, checks are widespread in Narayanpet and East Godavari areas. We retained the checks however regularly obtained the weavers to experiment with a mixture of colors,” says Samyuktha. 

Equally, the standard zari borders had been changed with borders in a pop of colors. A stable, vibrant border contrasts the gamcha-like small test sample in a sari. In one other, the checks and stripes are utilized in some parts of the sari whereas the woven jamdani butas draw consideration to the pleats and pallu.

The Srikakulam ballakammi weave, an additional weft approach used to create textured patterns totally on the pallu, additionally went in for a change. Samyuktha reveals how that approach has been used within the physique of the newer saris to create patterns and textures. The color palette varies from mauves to magentas, turmeric yellows to aqua blues. A conventional sirigadi or small test Srikakulam shirting clothes design served as an inspiration for a couple of saris. 

Samyuktha explains that a further problem is to innovate such that designs can’t be simply replicated on a powerloom. She reveals a woven buta motif in three colors and says such patterns are powerful to repeat on the powerloom: “We have to innovate to remain afloat. Color fastness has additionally been our USP. Quite a lot of analysis goes into selecting the dyes and the washing approach to make sure that the garments don’t bleed.” 

Among the ladies weavers who be a part of the dialog add that they’re able to tackle design challenges. “We are able to weave 4 to 6 saris a month if the design is straightforward and we’ve assistance on the loom. Advanced designs take extra time, however we earn higher and we’re comfortable when the saris get offered and we get extra orders,” says Veerabasweswari. The ladies say that they will earn as much as ₹12,000 or ₹15,000 a month for weaving 4 or 5 saris. 

Creyo shares handloom saris, materials and clothes reminiscent of attire, crop tops, trousers and tunics. The value ranges from ₹1,500 to ₹9,000.