Once a part of every Punjab household, durries (rugs) and khes (thick bedspreads) have been pushed out of use by machine-made furnishings. A brand born in a village is now reviving these traditional handloom products.
In 2004, Kiran Grewal started her label Balwaar, named after the village in district Sangrur in Punjab, when she was experimenting with crochet products like throws for an exhibition. However, the plunge into weaving happened in 2017, when Grewal and two of her friends, Sangeeta Sen and Priya Singh, decided to start a pilot project for weaving khes (thick cotton bedspreads) and durries (rugs). The project began with 18 women in Balwaar, the ancestral village of Grewal’s husband, as a way to support the local community. The idea was to create products that can easily find customers. They created a weaving handbook that has been helping the women artisans, even the skilled ones, all this while.
Now Balwaar employs 22 local women, who received in-house training in the craft. They use the spinning wheel to prepare the yarn for the khes. The traditional kumbal loom (a hand-blown shuttle loom), also known as pit loom, is used for weaving. But to make the production easier and faster, the fly shuttle loom is also used. The women are able to weave one khes every day, and earn between Rs 10,000 and Rs 50,000 a month, depending on the demand. They are now also experimenting with using natural dyes prepared at the studio.
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Navmalika Sidhu is a freelance content writer at an online fashion and sustainability editorial. She writes about sustainability in fashion, craft revival and consumer awareness in the fashion industry.
