"That’s my favourite part: learning new patterns."

"I am a weaver. It’s more than a job – it is who I am. I love the artistic part of it. The colours, the precision, blending the threads together, to create a pattern. I learned weaving right after school in a special training centre. But back then I couldn’t find a good job as a weaver so instead, I made some money working on fields, picking cotton, sowing soybean, those kinds of things.

Twelve years ago, I finally found a good job here. Initially, I was only making the threads that my colleagues would use but soon enough I made it to weaving.

We only work with organic cotton and the colours are coming from natural dyes - you can feel it, and it is good for your skin, so I really enjoy what we are creating here. And of course, all our work is done by hand, we use hand looms instead of big machines. You can tell the difference: the fabrics that we weave by hand are way more robust; and also, more costly but I think people appreciate our products out there. Most of our scarfs, rugs or fabrics we produce are sold in Delhi and Switzerland. At the beginning of the Covid crisis, this was hard, as bulk orders were going down, but now we are already more at ease. And I am happy here; it is a small place and our working atmosphere is really nice, we can learn and try out new things.

That’s my favourite part: learning new patterns, recently we got a new sample so I am trying to learn this new design with gold and flowers. Normally we can weave about 8m per day, but of course, the more complex a pattern is, the longer it takes. But art also takes time.

At heart, I am an artist. When I was younger I was also dancing a lot. It is a special traditional dance here from the region, the Nimar dance. It’s a group dance and we would do a lot of performances. I also passed this on to my two children. They have even performed in Europe! My husband supports them, just as he was supporting me when I was dancing and he gives me full freedom. I appreciate this a lot, it is not something you can take for granted.

Who knows, maybe, one day, I will be able to create my own small brand. With the support of my family, I could buy a handloom and start producing some scarves at home. Because if you have a will, a strong desire in your heart to do something, you should go for it. No one can stop you."

Subhadra Fagna is 35 years old, lives in Mandleshwar and works at the Aavran Handloom Society.

More portraits

fibl.org: Faces of Organic Cotton