Jabbar and Adam Khatri carefully place a block on a new masterpiece.

Friday September 13th was the Five Artisans Exhibition at Maiwa East. The exhibition was up for one night only. On display were recently created masterworks by all five artisans: Ajrakh block printers Jabbar and Adam Khatri, weaver by Shamji Vishram Vankar and bandhani tied resist by Jabbar and Abdullah Khatri. In addition to the display of masterworks there were demonstrations in the techniques used by all the craftspeople present.

Shamji Vishram Vankar demonstrates weaving technique on the custom built portable looms that arrived for his workshop.

Jabbar and Abdullah Khatri introduce a bandhani piece before removing the resist threads.

Master craftsmen Jabbar and Adam Khatri demonstrated the art of ajrakh in front of a full house at the Maiwa East exhibition space on September 16, 2017. The evening was introduced by Charllotte Kwon.

Jabbar Khatri plotting the lines of a new piece.

Adam Khatri takes over from his father and plots the outline with pencil.

Double sided ajrakh print inspired by islamic tilework.

These masterworks show innovation both in design and in the shades of natural dyes.

Masterworks inspired by the natural world.

Imagery included images from over twenty years of Maiwa's relationship with the Khatris.

Detail of a masterwork showing Jabbar and Adam's flawless printing technique.

At the end of the evening Jabbar reviews the progress of the piece ...

Mo Kelman brought the audience along on a journey of artistic discovery on September 7th. It was, to quote a surrealist inspiration, as beautiful as the chance juxtaposition of a sewing machine and an umbrella on a dissecting table. Mo is known for her skeletal frameworks which are suspended tethered to the wall and covered with a skin of textile. Sometimes the skin is shibori but sometimes it is a more literal skin. 

The lecture went on under adverse circumstances as Granville Island was without power that night. About two hours before Mo was due to take the stage a transformer blew and completely eliminated power on the island. Maiwa rigged up a generator, added some candles and lanterns and the lecture wend on. It was, in fact, a most beautiful and magical evening.

For those of you who could not attend the lecture, there is an exhibition of Mo's sculptural textiles at the Silk Weaving Studio. It will remain up until September 22nd. We strongly encourage you to see it to fully appreciate her stunning work.

For our readers who live too far away to visit our new exhibition. Here are some photographs taken during opening night. The show remains up in the North end of the Monte Clark Gallery until October 1, 2016.

Abduljabbar Khatri in the Bonington Gallery, Nottingham, UK.

This month, Nottingham Trent University in Nottingham, UK, was at the centre of the block printing world. Three events kept us focused.

The first was an exhibition in the Bonington Gallery featuring block printing history and sites of contemporary practice. The exhibition, titled Imprints of Culture: Block Printed Textiles of India, included historic pieces, items of traditional dress, video footage of process and a compelling series of stills documenting the individuals who keep this time-consuming craft alive. We arrived in the last days of the show and were able to photograph Abduljabbar Khatri next to a print design based on cloth fragments recovered from Fustat, Egypt. In the background is one of Abduljabbar's masterworks, a double sided ajrakh cloth with a complex centre motif. In 2007 Abduljabbar's two brothers, Ismail and Razzaque, presented lectures and workshops at the Maiwa Textile Symposium. In January, curator Eiluned Edwards was interviewed by Aesthetica Magazine about her experience putting together the exhibit.



The second was the release of Eiluned Edwards new book, titled Block Printed Textiles of India: Imprints of Culture. We are just in the process of adding it to the Maiwa online store and will post a review when it arrives (but we've had a brief look at it, here in Nottingham and are very impressed!).

The third was a program put together by Eiluned titled "Culture, Heritage and Sustainability." It was a one day seminar held in Nottingham Trent University exploring the ways in which cultural heritage is managed and sustained in different contexts—with a strong emphasis on India. Participants included Sandy Black, (author of The Sustainable Fashion Handbook), Charllotte Kwon (of Maiwa), Abduljabbar Khatri and Eiluned Edwards, Divia Patel (co-curator with Rosemary Crill of the Fabric of India Exhibition), Ritu Sethi (of the Craft Revival Trust), Ruth Clifford (graduate student looking at design education for traditional artisans) and Jatin Bhatt (of Ambedkar University, Delhi) who looked at the craft sector from a systems standpoint.

It was an engaging day and concluded a number of smaller events including a hands-on block printing workshops delivered by Abduljabbar Khatri.

The first event of the 2015 Maiwa Textile Symposium is next week.
This is a free event being held at the Silk Weaving Studio on Granville Island
Tuesday September 8th 6 - 8 pm.

Laxmi Duclos listens to a question from the audience.

Charllotte Kwon, Jan and Laxmi Duclos talk about the embroidery.

Side by side comparison of historic and contemporary work.

Jan and Laxmi Duclos work with Michel Garcia

Colin Whitworth readies the bar for the 2012 wrap party.