Over 45 participants from all over India, many of them award-winning weavers, will participate in Vastrabharana2021, the Crafts Council of Karnataka’s annual flagship exhibition and sale of hand-crafted textiles and jewelry. Vastrabharana will be held from March 5th to March 9th, 2021, at the New Gallery Spaces, consisting of seven large, well spread, airy, socially distanced halls at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Kumara Krupa Road, Bengaluru. Timings are 10.00 a.m. to 7.00 pm. The exhibition will be inaugurated on March 5th at 10.00 a.m. by Smt. Aditi Ranjan – a textile expert and designer and former Senior Faculty, NID, Ahmedabad.
New in Vastrabharana 2021:
The fabulous, luxurious, jewel-toned Patan Patola by the hereditary weaver, Nirmal Salvi, from the heritage town of Patan in Gujarat. Distinctive in the collection are accessories like Potlis made in Patan Patola textiles.
Also in the spotlight this year are tribal textiles from the interiors of India. The Manibandha and Gopalpur Collective and Vani Vrtti Design Studio from Odisha; and Tangaliyas by Rathod Babubhai from West Bengal. Sourav Das represents innovation through his revival of Benaras sarees and Imran Ansari’s revival of Paithani and Chanderi textiles. Look for the Id Ka Chand motif weave in Imran’s sarees! Our own Karnataka is represented by the Punarjeevana Trust, which will show North Karnataka weaves like Pattade Anchu and Gome Teni. Kala Nele will be displaying Ilkal sarees, and Guledgadd Khan Choli weaves, which have recently been awarded a Geographical Indicator (GI) tag.
A possible contender for the Best Designed Textile Product of our times is the beautifully styled and designed textile masks, “Genki by Mura,” a part of Mura Collective’s – Shibori with care offerings. Genki, in Japanese, is a state of mind and body; healthy, vital, and positive, the energy of the universe flows through you.
Vastrabharana favorites will be well represented by several textile weavers from all over India, and patrons will be spoilt for choice. The jewelry section this year features handcrafted silver jewelry with traditional and contemporary designs by Umiamma and Tiyasha. Charkhi from Kaldera will be presenting temple and fusion jewelry.
The Crafts Council of Karnataka is a not-for-profit organization started in Bengaluru in 1967, under Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay’s patronage. The mission of CCK is to promote and support the crafts of Karnataka and the sustainable livelihoods of its craftspersons. Its objectives are to provide a bridge between craft communities and source markets, facilitate design intervention and product development that will meet the contemporary consumer’s needs, upgrade technologies of craftspersons and revive, support, and preserve the languishing crafts of Karnataka. CCK is affiliated with the Crafts Council of India and the World Crafts Council.
“The profits of Vastrabharana will benefit craft communities in Karnataka,” said Padmaja Sakhamuri, Convenor, Vastrabharana.
Entry: Free
Compulsory: Wearing of Masks/ Sanitisation/ Social Distancing