Recorded at the 2007 Maiwa Textile Symposium on October 17, 2007

Here is a story with a stitch in the tale. It’s about 16 years of research into how and why people make textiles, what they use them for, and how they are traded in Western India. That’s a tidy description for a messy process, one which transformed Eiluned from a designer into a researcher and academic.

Within a month of reaching India, she spent several euphoric weeks in Bhuj making dusty journeys on foot, in buses, and in rickshaws to meet craftspeople in the town and in the surrounding villages. She studied tie dye with Ali Mohammed Isha Khatri in Danda Bazaar and scrutinized glorious heaps of dowry embroideries thrust upon her in the tiny hamlets of Banni. She was introduced to the aesthetics of Rabari embroidery under the discerning tutelage of Vankabhai and Ramiben in Bhujodi village.

The range and beauty of the crafts, the joy of these encounters with complete strangers are recorded in her notebooks, sketchbooks, and photographs. For her, one experience stands out above all others – meeting Mohammed Siddique Khatri and his family at Dhamadka, and seeing ajrakh for the first time. She has remained captivated by the family and the textile ever since.

EILUNED EDWARDS

In 1991, the proceeds from a commission were sufficient to either sustain Eiluned for six months in her studio or fund a trip to India. Both options were appealing and in the end she decided not to make a decision but to leave it to fate, to the toss of a coin. She was intrigued by the proposition of allowing chance, or fate, or kismet, to determine the course of her life, and so, kismet determined a trip to India.

In the ensuing years, various grants enabled her to return to Kutch, and the city of Bhuj became her home base for several years. She researched the textiles and dress of the district, living and working with Khatris, Vankars (weavers), and Rabaris, who also taught her Gujarati. For the past few years, Ismail Khatri and Eiluned have been researching ajrakh, other block-prints, and natural dyes in order to publish a definitive book.

As Eiluned puts it: “I am working with one of the most beautiful cloths in the world, and with a family that is now more familiar to me than my own. It is challenging, too; through these textiles I am learning chemistry, botany, math, design, Islamic philosophy, and a different way of perceiving the world.”