Hand Woven Bags

Anyone remember these niwar wooden cots with turned legs, and cool cotton webbing? They are wonderful to sleep on in the summer when mattresses are just too hot! There was a time when they were in most village houses and the weaving was done locally on small looms. We can perhaps describe it as a type of folk weaving.

In the 1980’s one man amongst many people affected by leprosy in a colony in Andhra Pradesh, S. India, revealed that he knew how to set up the looms and weave these cotton tapes (niwar). He was employed to train women members of the leprosy colony who did not wish to go begging for a living.  For some years attempts were made to sell the niwar on the immediate local market but people were afraid to buy anything from a leprosy community. (Needless fear as it happens, since there was no risk to anyone from buying and using the niwar.)

The challenge became how to use the skills the women had acquired if the niwar were not selling.  Experiments dyeing the yarn into great colours and weaving a little wider and then finding some tailors to stitch the niwar into hand woven bags were all tried out.  The results received a very good response in international markets and urban populations in India.

Forty years later, many of the weavers and tailors are the daughters and daughters-in-law of the original weavers and the hand woven bags are still selling well and contributing to the income of the original families.

Not the fine, delicate, gorgeous weaving of Poochimpali or Chandheri, rather something altogether less delicate but wonderfully robust and in the most gorgeous of colours.  The bags are a blend of the old basic folk weaving technique and new modern interpretation and usage. Even the courser less refined handicrafts can still have a place in our lives and be enjoyed.

Did you watch the Bag Ballet video above? You can be the final part of that ballet. Buy a hand woven bag online here or from our shop in Uday Park, New Delhi.