Say Hi to Doti.
What if, you saw a dress style you liked and you could simply download the pattern and weave it from your computer?
Say hi to Doti . And no, it’s not an invitation to copy the latest Sabya :)
Pamela Liou, is developing a desktop jacquard loom as part of a research project which could turn every cottage industry weaver into a customised textiles producer. Doti’s design allows for the weaving of any pattern, “unencumbered by pre-threaded harnesses or the cognitive load of keeping track of a draft pattern.”
Then there is Thingiverse , a 3D printable rigid heddle loom “that will allow you to try your hand at weaving for the expenditure of not a lot of money, some 3D printer filament, and some PVC pipe.”
Its October 2, 2019. We are celebrating #Gandhi150 and the logo reminds us of the focal role of textiles in our freedom movement.
Perhaps it is now time to bring Indian sensibility and design to Inklettes and Dotis so that the fruits of the loom can be relished by those who labour over it. This would not be at odds with some of Gandhiji’s thinking. It is claimed he called Singer sewing machine the best invention ever made and in 1929 announced a Machine Contest with a prize money of GBP 7700 to develop a better charkha.
The six Centres for Textile Excellence to develop technical textile innovations could be transformed into the textile industry’s Atal Tinkering Labs.
We also have a bunch of textile research institutes — SASMIRA, ATIRA, BTRA, NITRA, CITRA, WRA, IJIRA, CRIJAF, CSB ( sadly infamous as the Silk Board traffic junction in Bengaluru). Could these research institutes come together for a blue skies session, a hackathon, a free wheeling discussion on what is happening in the world around us.
It would require policymakers to be personally invested in making it happen.
Perhaps too , its time to emulate Shishuvan, the Matunga school that aims to improve hand eye coordination among its students by including spinning and weaving in its curriculum.
So, how about an Experience Room at United Mills № 2 & 3 , the site of a proposed textile museum at Kalachowky in Mumbai?
What if we could install a dozen or more charkhas and 3D printed looms to allow more children to learn , to play and to benefit like their counterparts at Shishuvan.
What if we could transform one of the heritage structures into the first of 150 labs focused on some of the themes explored in Threading the Needle? Integrating SDG into core business supply chains for the textile industry can happen only with research, development of prototypes, tinkering and eventually commercialisation.
The objectives of self sustaining enterprise, of SDGs, are not at odds with the global outlook demanded of contemporary businesses.
Mumbai is, to borrow a phrase from the tweetset above, an anchor point on the route of industrial heritage and it would be fitting that innovation and commerce come together again in the city .
