Part 4: Beautiful encounters with women from artisan communities.

The next part of the trip was truly magical and the highlight of the trip for me (which is saying something as the whole trip was nothing but highlights!)

The next two days were spent driving  into the desert towards the Great Rann of Kutch not far from the border of Pakistan, visiting rural communities. These were really privileged encounters, only made possible by the special relationships that our guides had forged with these villages over years.

We were welcomed into a home in the first village by a lovely family, who invited us to sit together on a rug. We sat cross-legged in a circle as samples of fabric, showing local embroidery techniques, were passed around. One of the women demonstrated how the stitches were done, carefully showing us each step.

She showed us how to sew tiny mirrors onto fabric using neat circular stitches. Some people in our group picked it up straight away, but it was far too fiddly for me- I’m seriously lacking in patience!

As we worked, we listened to stories about village life and what it was like to be a woman in this community. Our host told us about her family and her hopes for the future. She was unusual in that she has ambitions for her youngest daughter to become a teacher.

It was fascinating meeting the communities, as the villages varied so much from each other in terms of how much they had adapted to commercialisation. The next village we visited made patchwork quilts form scraps which they had succeeded in selling quilts to a big chain of shops in India called FabIndia, which had brought a good income stream to the village.

We were greeted with a home cooked lunch, and we sat on the porch to eat it. it contained delicious yoghurt made from their buffalo milk.

The women then got to work and showed us how they layered cotton wadding onto the fabrics which they had patchworked together. They then hand sewed the edges and stitched along the fabric with large kantha stitches. Everyone was so lovely and friendly and they let us have a go, and I found this sewing quite a bit easier!

I am really hoping to make some quilts with these artisans to sell to you all, although it is already proving quite a challenge getting my fabrics there as they are currently stuck in customs, so it may not happen!

This village was an absolute visual feast as the women looked incredible in their embroidered kanjari's and chaniyo (skirts)

Of course we then had to 'exit via the gift shop' where I felt compelled to buy two quilts. I was fast getting a reputation in the group for being an out of control shopper!

Our final stop of the day was to an extraordinary village where we were greeted like long lost friends. It was truly magical. This community does not usually allow visits from tours as they are very private, but Sian, Tuhina and Pravin our guides have built up a wonderful friendship with the villagers, so we were incredibly fortunate to be welcomed in this way.

As we sat talking with the villagers, they embroidered motifs onto our clothes. I was really moved by the deep connection that I felt with the kind-souled woman who sewed a gold flower onto my skirt, and how it felt as if the thread connected us. I thought about how stitching is one of the oldest human skills practiced for thousands of years by women across cultures and continents. omen had sewn together over thousands of years.

We were also lucky enough to pick up a few pieces of embroidery from them, which I shall really cherish.

Below left shows a machine embroidered Kanjari which was made as a gift for one of our guides Tuhina by the village 'fashion designer'! She was a really stylish woman who had shown a real love of making clothes, and many of the women in the village wore garments made by her.

On the bus back to Bhuj, I found myself reflecting that although some of these villages might be described as ‘poor’, they felt incredibly rich in community and friendship. It made me think about how busy and stressful our lives in London often are, and how so many people there have taken up crafting as a way to reconnect with themselves and slow down.

When I later told my friends about these communities, about how the women spend their days sitting together, embroidering and talking, they all said the same thing: “That sounds like my idea of heaven.”

To be continued.....