Making Without Fear

I have known Utpala Desai (Utpala Didi, to me) since 2017, when I was doing fieldwork and collecting data for my dissertation in Ahmedabad. What continues to inspire me is her commitment to and resourcefulness in learning about and preserving traditional art forms. In the words of another mentor of mine, I absolutely love that she puts her heart into her work. And so, when Utpala Didi invited me to visit an appliqué workshop she was organising, I was only too eager to go. The participants were women from a particular community who had been practising this form of needlework for years.

Appliqué involves cutting and sewing pieces of fabric into different shapes and sizes. The sewing techniques can vary, but the women were using a hem stitch. First, the pieces of fabric are arranged according to a design and tacked into place. The edges are then folded over by about a quarter of an inch and neatly hemmed.

 

I enjoyed watching the different things they were making, ranging from a baby blanket to a skirt, a bandana and even a saree! Some of the pieces depicted entire scenes from in and around Ahmedabad.

The attraction of needlework, or for that matter any handicraft, is that working with one’s hands can be a deeply immersive experience, for both the observer and the observed. As I moved around the room, getting sucked into the vortex of appliqué, I came across both familiar and unfamiliar techniques.

And, thank goodness, I now know how to hem fabric at the corners!

 

As we talked, I learned more about the handicrafts industry. The increasing pressure from companies to produce handicrafts has consequences for both the art form and the artisans themselves. For the art form, one visible consequence is a decline in quality. The finishing may be poor, or the stitches may lack uniformity and neatness. For the artisans, the pressure to produce replaces creativity with fear.

When a company pays by the piece, it wants as many pieces as possible, made as quickly as possible. As artisans get used to working this way, their minds can become hostage to the fear of not completing the required number of pieces and, as a result, not getting paid. Such a system does little to encourage creativity. And unfortunately, creativity cannot be contrived. It needs ample space and time for thinking and experimenting.

Utpala Didi tells me that at the beginning of the workshop, when the facilitator gave the women fabric and asked them to be creative, they didn't know what to do. Instead, they felt guilty. They were receiving an honorarium for attending the workshop, yet they weren't being asked to produce anything. By the end of the workshop, however, they had begun to discover the pleasure of having the freedom to create.