Sarees by women weavers from Srikakulam, East Godavari and Narayanpet take center stage at Crayo, the new entrant to the Crafts Council of Telangana’s CCT Space in Hyderabad
Women weavers’ saris take center stage at Creyo, the new entrant to the Crafts Council of CCT Space, Telangana in Hyderabad
Veerabasveri from East Godavari district and Sandhya of Panduru in Srikakulam district are among the women handloom weavers who have traveled to Hyderabad to inaugurate Crayo, a store of the Crafts Council of Telangana campus CCT Space. Crayo will stock sarees, fabrics and fabrics woven by weavers’ groups in East Godavari, Srikakulam and Narayanpet, supported by the Chitrika Foundation.
Women are proud to see the sarees woven by them at the shop. “Many of us come from weavers’ families. I grew up watching my mother and other women work on the loom and I naturally took to this. Knitting is a way of life for me, my mother and my mother-in-law,” says Sandhya. Her specialty is Srikakulam’s Kuppadam weaving, an interlocking technique for designing temple borders in contrasting colours.
Srikakulam’s Kuppadam differs from East Godavari in that the interlocking technique sports contrasting colours, often without the boundary of the temple.
One of the female weavers of Chitrika. photo credit: special arrangement
Both the women mentioned that some of the saris woven by their groups were worn by actor Ritu Varma in the Telugu film. varudu kavalenu, “some of the bahubali The team members also picked up our saris.
Chitrika Foundation is working with women weavers in Srikakulam, East Godavari and Narayanpet. Label Chitrika, which till now tapped consumers through its online portal (chitrika.in) and exhibitions organized by the Crafts Council, hopes to expand its reach through the Crayo store. Vijaya Swita Gandhi, who founded the label in 2005, says that Crayo will act as an umbrella label that will stock Chitrika’s products as well as products from small agriculture and dairy farm units in the near future.
Women Weavers and Artisans of Chitrika | photo credit: special arrangement
Over the years, Chitrika has groomed textile designers and fashion graduates to transform traditional weaves and make them more attractive to urban buyers. Swita and textile designer Sanyukta Gorepati, who are closely associated with the organisation, say the design interventions have helped expand the color and design palette while maintaining the distinctive identity of native weaves. “Checks are common in Narayanpet and East Godavari areas, for example. We retained the check but gradually asked the weavers to experiment with the mix of colours,” says Sanyukta.
Similarly, the traditional zari border was replaced with a border in pops of colours. A solid, shiny border contrasts the small check pattern in the saree like the gamchha. In another, checks and stripes are used in some parts of the saree, while the woven jamdani buta draws attention to the pleats and pallu.
The Srikakulam Ballakammi weaving, an additional weft technique mainly used to create textured patterns on the pallu, also underwent a change. Sanyukta shows how that technique has been used to create patterns and textures in the body of the new sarees. The color palette varies from mauve to magenta, turmeric yellow to aqua blues. Traditional sirigadi Or the small check Srikakulam shirting clothing design serves as inspiration for some sarees.
A view of the Crayo store by Chitrika in the CCT space. photo credit: special arrangement
An additional challenge is to innovate such that the design cannot be easily replicated on a powerloom, explains Sanyukta. She shows off the buta motif woven in three colors and says it’s hard to copy such patterns on powerlooms: “We need to innovate to stay afloat. Color fastness has also been our USP. It takes a lot of research into choosing colors and washing techniques to make sure clothes don’t bleed. ,
Some of the women weavers who joined the conversation said that they are ready to take on the design challenges. “We can weave four to six sarees in a month if the design is simple and we have help on the loom. Intricate designs take more time, but we earn better and when the sarees sell out and we get more orders, we are happy,” says Veerbasveshwari. Women say they can earn up to ₹12,000 or ₹15,000 a month weaving four or five saris.
Crayo stocks handloom sarees, fabrics and fabrics like dresses, crop tops, trousers and tunics. The price ranges from ₹ 1,500 to ₹ 9,000.