Creativity does not need any language or technology to manifest itself into a marketable product. This is being amply proven by scores of Chhttisgarh’s traditional handloom weavers who now have the best design and technology minds working with them to make their products keep up with the global market demand for products which infuse tradition with modernity.
The Chhattisgarh government is increasingly seeking services of young designers from the premier fashion design and technology institutes in the country such as the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), National Institute of Design (NID), National Institute of Craft Design and National Institute of Handloom Technology to generate new designs and colour combinations for the products being weaved by the traditional handloom weavers in the State, according to the annual report of the State government’s Cottage Industry Department for 2013-14 released last week.
The designers of the aforesaid institutes had been busy working in the regions dominated by the weavers or the ‘handloom clusters’ where they had been introducing the weavers to an entirely new world of designs and colour patterns for their better marketability.
The objective of the initiative is to make the traditional handloom weavers financially self-reliant. On the other hand , the Government is also planning to develop technology for weavers — who are members of the Primary Weaver Co-operative Committees — by identifying looms which can generate new designs and adapt to the new technologies.
This apart, the Government — while utilising the designs — prepared in the Computer Aided Design Centre (CAD) established by it had also been providing innovative materials for making crafts for offices, homes and also interior designers, the report stated.