Gwalior weavers to now weave silk

02 Jul '10

2 min read

Handicrafts and Handlooms Development Corporation (HHDC) will soon be turning Gwalior in to a silk city. Handloom weavers of Gwalior, in the year 2004-05, had given identity to the Polyester Belt of the region.

These weavers will now be trained for weaving silk cloth. The training centre, which will be operated by HHDC, is located within the premises of Adarsh Handlooms in Birla Nagar.

Currently, ten weavers are getting trained on how to weave plain silk cloth with the help of Bangalore silk yarns, brought from Maheshwar. HHDC is also providing a stipend of Rs 100 a day to the trainees.

Gwalior weavers are already experts in making skilful use of waste cloth procured from bigger cloth mills. They create goods such as car seat cover, durries, fur sofa set cover, cloth that can be used while praying, door mats, motorcycle seat cover and the like. The fur textile segment of Gwalior is both economical and beautiful.

This kind of work has been in existence since 25 years. Domestic traders buy waste cloth from textile mills and create such products. Since there is no dearth in the demand for Fur Textile, almost all the weavers' goods are sold off. Currently, about over 100 looms are operating in Gwalior's fur textile industry.

Weaving silk cloth is considered as a novelty for Gwalior weavers, as till date they used to only weave coarse cloth such as Terri coat, bed sheets, polyester, bandage cloth and the like.

Efforts are also being taken to revive handloom sector in Madhya Pradesh. Chanderi Silk or Maheshwari Sarees, both are currently receiving assistance and cooperation from the state and central government, so as to safeguard the conventional art of weaving.

However, around all this, HHDC's effort of weaving plain silk cloth from Gwalior has not been enthusiastically accepted by the domestic weavers.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk - India

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