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    When you see a piece of fabric, you take a few glances at it and instinctively your hand reaches out to touch and feel it. While textile is a ‘text’ that can be seen and read it also carries an embodied meaning that takes shape when it is worn or placed within the setting of a home. Mark Johnson says, ‘Meaning is embodied. It arises through embodied organism-environment interactions in which significant patterns are marked within the flow of experience. Meaning emerges as we engage the pervasive qualities of situations and note distinctions that make sense of our experience and carry it forward. The meaning of something is its connections to the past, present, and future experiences, actual...

Thorthu, Kerala Thorthu The ‘u’ not to be pronounced as thor-thoo, but like ‘ue’ of Prague. Thorth.   For someone from a tropical land, cotton is undoubtedly a part and parcel of one's daily life. And for someone especially from Kerala, from a textile perspective, our most prized possessions - the most ordinary and extraordinary is cotton and with 'kara' (bands) - both revered greatly - the saree or mundu and the 'thorthu'. While the Kerala saree and mundu and mundum neriyathum get everyone's attention as Kerala’s main textiles, the thorthu humbly takes a backseat, enjoying it all hanging on the clothesline, under the sun; slowly swaying in the wind with no complaints. The thorthu, in reality, is perhaps bought...

I woke up every morning to the melody of neighbourhood children doing their riyaaz. I would put on my best khadi and take a stroll to the ghat. There it stood, the gleaming red sandstone fort Ahilya, by the glistening liquid gold river Narmada. As I would walk up to the fort, past the stunning hand-carved Shiva temples, I would hear it; the music of handloom from Rehwa society.    Ahilyabai Holkar or as she’s revered, ‘Maa Saheb’, is the patron of Maheshwari weaving. Her reign (1767-1795 AD) was considered to be the golden age of crafts and culture. As a widow herself, her wardrobe was spartan and her style of dressing was simple and elegant; which reflected in the...

“Even the most specialised software available cannot handle intricacies involved in designing an elaborate saree.”

The nine-yard weave has been getting an eco-friendly makeover in modern times as self-help groups have begun to experiment with contemporary yarns going beyond cotton and silk that make up the regular repertoire of sarees. Here are a five such fibres used these days giving the loom an innovative twist.