Woven Reveries of Chinchi: A Craft Cluster Initiative

For an appropriate visual representation, we rendered characters that represented every member of the weaver family, we carried out the craft cluster initiative with.

On a mandatory craft cluster visit to a small village to the east of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, my team and I discovered a story that we couldn’t wait to share with the world. The objective of the trip was a meagre research project- to observe, experience, and record our findings. However, on spending ten days with one of the warmest, most amiable, weaver family, we discovered much more than what met the eye. 

Due to the onslaught of power looms in the area, these small families- whose only means of living was the craft of weaving- were suffering greatly. Large orders that had been coming to them, for generations, swiftly moved to the sector where power looms were available. 

This family welcomed us into their home with open arms and told us about all their woes and thrills. The poverty and cramped space did not seem to affect them as much as one would think- they found ways to make merry with what they had. One of their daughters, Afsana, was slowly going blind, and the family did not have enough money to get her operated.

It was my brainchild, to take this craft cluster intervention one step forward and bring the industry to their doorstep. We brought back the scarves the family wove for us during our stay, locally referred to as gamchhas, and took them to Delhi-based designers, Sameer Madan and Dhruv Kapoor. The idea was simple- they took the gamchha and upcycled it into a commercial silhouette that they could call their own. The result transcended our expectations.

Our film; a narrative from the heart of Zaidpur.