...kanthas were made by women of all rural classes in Bengal, the rich landlord's wife making her own elaborate embroidered quilt in her leisure time, and the tenant farmer's wife making her own thrifty, coverlet, equal in beauty and skill...

The kantha in its simplest form was invented out of necessity and made in varying sizes and layers, starting with small pieces of cloth spread in the courtyard to lay new born babies on while they were massaged with mustard oil, to the light covers that adults use at night, and wrap over their shoulders in winter mornings.

Kantha was almost never made for money, and the idea of using this embroidery commercially, originated more in urban groups where young women were trained from scratch, rather than from women who have done this work all their lives. There was a growing interest in this craft form in the 1980s and Sasha did a lot of research that culminated in several exhibitions. They also became involved in groups who started making kanthas commercially for the first time. Most of these women did not have a formal education and rarely went out of their villages.

When these groups formed, they didn't need further training in embroidery, but they needed to learn accounting, management, raw material buying etc. Self-Help Handicrafts Society (a sister concern of Sasha's) was involved in the development of all these groups and shared their experiences and knowledge. Other things also changed with commercial work. They used frames to hold the fabric. The old way of several women working on one large piece of work however continued. They learnt about tracing designs (which they never did before, earlier, they just drew the designs straight on the fabric with a pencil) and money management.

Many women in rural Bengal do a lot of kantha work for traders in Calcutta. But the women who work with Sasha feel that they are doing work of a very high quality and that is something they are very proud of. They feel they are specialists and their work cannot easily be done by anyone else. Also the feeling of belonging to a small and exclusive group is very important. Most of these women have grandchildren and they do all the housework, look after various domestic animals, children etc. So they often need to put in extra hours at night to complete a rush order

To read more about the various stitches used in kantha embroidery, please click here.
To see an example of this beautiful craft in our bazaar section, please click here.