Kantha Project at Sasha

A majority of rural women in Bengal know and practice the art of Kantha-making as part of their daily domestic chores .With the increase demand for re-cycled product, Sasha was of the view that the traditional re-cycling aspect of Kantha needs to be highlighted and enhanced in future product development.

Sasha is currently undertaking an extensive design and technical development project on Kantha, involving about 10 women groups from different parts of West Bengal. This project is sponsored by DC (H) and is an on-going one.

Sasha plans for workshops at different places with the groups to improve the skill levels and confidence of the artisans. The first few workshops were executed to assess the present skill levels of the women and their current craft practices. It helped identify the potential for further skill development in the women artisans.

Sasha conducted a workshop at Panchannagram, in the eastern fringes of Kolkata with Sasha’s regular groups like Panchannagram Mahila Samity, Raidhighi Saswati Mahila Samity, Ghutiarisharif Samity, Tantulia Mahila Samity. Noted designer Ms. Jyothi Pratha gave a new look to the traditional Kantha embroidery by combining age-old stitches with contemporary designs. She used Zari embroidery along with the conventional threads that gave a new and fashionable look to the products.

Some of the new products that were developed during the workshop were designs for bed-covers, cushion-covers, runners, garments, accessories etc. The embroidery was mainly done on paisley prints.

As the next logical step of the skill and design development workshops, was to promote small enterprises out of the present capacity of the craftswomen and create viable market linkages by existing Sasha markets through exhibitions and sampling with international buyers.

The production process has already begun in a small way with regular Sasha orders for samples and is expected to grow into a viable and regular business in a reasonable timeframe.

Other workshops are in the pipeline namely one at Dhankhet Vidyalay, Sonarpur, South 24 Parganas on Dhankhet stitch paintings that was a stlye much adopted by Late Meera Mukherjee, a renowned artist and social worker; the other one at ICHMRD where all the women groups and many designers are expected to participate.