Artist Talkies: Weaving a Kutch craft story with Vankar Murji Hamir

It has been around 22 years or more since Vankar Murji learnt and excelled the art of weaving. Hailing from the Kutch community of Marwada Vankar, he reminisces about the family tradition that has made him the man that he is today. Tradition is of a lot of import for him because it is the reason that made him take up weaving. His father and his grandfather were weavers in their time and parampara (tradition) made him pick up this wonderful art himself. His father, Hamirbhai was a master weaver associated with the Bhujodi Weaver’s Cooperative and Murji bhai sources him and his brother Dayarambhai as his inspirations to take up weaving.

Vankar Murji  
pic courtesy: Vankar Murji

Now, he is a self made weaver who wants to continue this family tradition. He has 10-15 artisans working alongside him to promote Bhujodi village’s otherwise dying art. Many of them are his relatives, some directly related to him while others are distantly related to him. In a village of about a few hundreds of weavers, Murji bhai wants time to be his ally so that this fading handicraft finds appreciation in a growing modern India.

Murji bhai as he’s fondly called by many who know him, talks us through the process of weaving. From the olden days, his village had tie ups with the nomadic clan of the Rabaris who’d provide dhaaga or thread from woolen fleece from the local sheep and goats that would be used for weaving to be exchanged as shawls and other such necessities. For his predecessors, wool has been their trademark material in the production of shawls and blankets for the community.

But since India’s independence in 1947 to the protectionism phase of Indian economy till about 1991; that saw the local markets opening up for national markets, to the impact of globalization a few decades later has seen wool losing contention against the acrylic wool counterparts and cotton. He rues the slow process of converting the yarn to thread that has made the community to shift to acrylic wool.

With the open market leading to increasing opportunities, the materials and their handloom weaving business progressed by incorporating designs and patterns to their products. They started fusing their traditional patterns with market trends to improve their business and name. One of the biggest motto that Vankar Murji abides by is the elaborate yet intrinsic fusing of traditional and modern methods but incorporating the insignia of his community; of weaving with hands and working the traditional loom to weave fabrics dipped in warmth and affection. Thereby reiterating that time is not the essential factor in the completion of his products.

pic courtesy: Vankar Murji

Over the years, the Bhujodi village has found recognition with Vankar Murji Hamir’s weaver organization where a group of 10 weaving families along with 20 women experiment with their traditional form due to mutating fashion trends. Changing times have seen them bringing together weaving and designing techniques together; nowadays, different block printing, embroidery works and tie-dyeing art forms are learnt by them to combine with their traditional weaving methods.

                        

Murji bhai recalls devoting time for a designing course in 2008 with a childhood friend at Kala Raksha Vidhyalaya in Kutch, Gujarat. And that was one of the biggest moments of inspiration for him and his organisation. His final project for the academy was named “Miri” and it was inspired by the Dhablo weaving method, called ghoontni wherein he placed an extra finger weave over the handloom weaved cloth. This became his specialty and has been his trademark method ever since.

One of the biggest credits that one can give to Murji bhai is that he loves learning more about his tradition and improving on it. But that doesn't mean he’ll forego the importance that technology bears on his art. He and his team are constantly on the lookout for trends that help his products in the market. He is constantly working with Kala Raksha Vidhyalaya, local NGOs and other organizations like The Color Caravan wherein he keeps in touch with not only the market trends but the virtual world. He believes that “age is no barrier when it comes to learning” and his best teachers over the years have been his customers.

Currently, Murji bhai is attending exhibitions in and around India where he displays his weaving prowess. His organisation specializes in shawls, stoles, jackets, sarees, mufflers. They have even expanded to bed sheets, cushion covers and even curtains. When quizzed about his children’s reaction to his growing fame, he says that his three children themselves question him about his art. He wants them to learn because he says this craft is his sole lineage, an essential part of his community’s identity. It’s his identity. He wishes his son would grow up to be a “loom ka engineer”. But he also has great designs to include his daughters into his business, thereby breaking tradition of allowing women in the weaving business. 

He signs off by echoing his family’s words; our identity lies in our craft. We wish to see Murji bhai climbing great heights on the basis of his works because amazing artists like him are a rarity in this age of blind consumer capitalism which has seen many traditional art forms in India dying out. He knows that struggle is unavoidable since he’s an independent artist but he has not lost heart. He’s rather inspired and sees a bright future for his craft and his community.

Vankar Murji's beautiful creations are now available on thecolorcaravan.com
To buy them online click here.

The photographs in this post cannot be used in any form without written permission.

Artist Talkies: Madhubani Artist: Shabnam Kumari aka Mini

This post is dedicated to our partner artist who evokes beauty in her works on Madhubani Art. Shabnam Kumari or Mini as she is fondly called is from a small village called Laxmipur in Madhubani district, Bihar. She comes from a family of women who have been trained in this artistic profession of making Mithila paintings for years now. Her interest was nurtured by her amma (mother) Meena Devi, a Madhubani artist. However, Mini believes that her greatest inspiration has been her nani (maternal grand-mother), Mahasundari Devi, a famous madhubani artist and winner of some very prestigious awards like National Award, Nagarjuna Award and Padma Shree. Her grand-mother nurtured the art till Mini picked it up on her own.  

Shabnam Kumari, OUR darling 'Mini'

Mini has been painting since her childhood but she picked up the market aspect of her paintings only in Delhi in 2001. She reminisces during our conversation about how she realized her potential to commercially paint in the Mithila form when she was accompanying her sister, Pushpa Kumari for an event at Pragati Maidan in 2001. A lady at the event realized her potential and offered her the opportunity to paint; And fearless as she is, she took up the offer to craft her own history (her sister was never in on this until the very end!)

                Madhubani Coasters The Color Caravan co-created with Subhnam Kumari.

She married soon after in 2004 and went to Guwahati with her husband. Even though she wished to further her craft there, opportunities never came her way and she went back to a life of family and motherhood with her two kids. Ever since then, she has returned ambitious and has been in a village near Delhi NCR for the past two years. But she now works whenever work comes her way because of her kids. She tells us that she even though she likes being a mother, she misses that pleasure that work accords her. She worries that if work doesn't keep coming her way, she'll soon have to return to Guwahati to her husband.

    Madhubani Coasters

Childhood stories of her association with Madhubani paintings invoke a lot of nostalgia in her. To her, her proudest moment was when she got the opportunity to go to Japan. To her it all began in class 8th, with a Fine Art competition based on Flowers and Leaves or as she calls it - phool patti. A gentleman called Hashigawa came, made his request of paintings that were personally done by the students. Mini rose to the occasion, did a fine painting based on the Goddess Saraswati. This impressed the gentleman so much that he sponsored her trip to Japan soonafter.

This story also corresponds to the story of how she started selling greeting cards to earn money. As kids, one used to gift cards to each other's friends. When her grandmother, Mahasundari Devi, heard of it, she encouraged her granddaughter to sell greeting cards to earn money. This was her first attempt at earning money of her own. But mostly, she realised that her talents in the field of Madhubani paintings could fetch her a unlikely livelihood in the future. 

                                                              Are they not gorgeous?

During our conversation, one story leads to another and Mini can't seem to hold back the stories. She talks about her stint as a college student at Mithila University in Bihar. She remembers going for a Rangoli competition back in those days assuming it were a Mithila painting competition. The first attempt was not a fruitful one as she returned empty handed. But this prompted her to prepare for the competiton the next time.  When she was asked to attend the competition again, she went on to becomimg university first in the field of arts.

She also remembers going to Vardhman University's competition around 1995-97. She recounts how she lost the competition, also losing out on putting the Mithila University on the forefront of arts simply because her skirt ended up ruffling her painting on completion. BHU went on to win the first position she recalls with a sigh.

                                                    " Life is art. Paint your dreams."

                     

For her, art is a constantly evolving process. She remembers how Jyoti Basu made her realize this.  Once during a visit to Calcutta she recalls how he forced her to think of the human effort that is central to such works. He'd ask her whether she could draw from her left hand. She in her innocent vehemence, drew something with her left hand. Which again brought further questioning from Jyoti Basu; he asked her why she began her paintings by starting from the head of the painted subject instead of the toe? This prompted her to draw another painting proving that she could draw starting from the toes. She even drew from the left and right hand to prove how good she was with Mithila paintings.

                   Mini flaunting her Madhubani slippers that she painted for herself.

She is proud of her daughter similarly for garnering an affection for Mithila drawings. Her daughter, she tells us, has been garnering accolades for her drawings and paintings in school. But she prefers that her daughter studies now than concentrate on a lost art.

                                          Her million dollar smile and eyes say it all.

Our conversation ebbs out with one last story of her youth wherein she exercised independence and chose a path less followed. She tried out as a Radio Presenter for a few months.  All she did was script a few stories, went to the radio station and impressed them enough with her stories that she ended up working as a presenter at the station. To her that incident is a crucial piece of history that she carries along with her today.

We are blessed to be working with a wonderful artist like Shabnam Kumari. Her child-like enthusiasm, warm smile, passion for Madhubani painting makes her an asset to the organisation. But mostly, The Color Caravan realizes its family of artists who bring their history into their art and transform us completely.

(The Color Caravan owns the copyright for all the photographs in this post. Cannot be used in any form without permission.)