Rising up within the lanes of Salangapalayam village surrounded by weavers, Kalaiyarasi Ramachandran, returned to her hometown in Tamil Nadu years later to seek out the standard craft dying. By way of her startup Raatai Handloom, she has remodeled handloom weaving right into a DIY exercise.
Kalaiyarasi Ramachandran spent her childhood admiring the massive handlooms within the quaint weavers’ lanes of Salangapalayam village in Erode district of Tamil Nadu. The rhythmic sound of looms and transformation of yarn into 9 yards of sarees diligently woven by the weavers was magical to her.
“I might fastidiously watch the wonderful threads being woven within the loom. We might concern sitting close to the weavers because the work required focus and no distraction. I might be tasked with small works like rotating the spinning wheel. We didn’t have a raatai (spinning wheel) in our home, so I might sneak to the weavers’ houses and admire the method,” she shares with The Higher India.
As she grew up, Kalaiyarasi went on to check laptop science and secured a well-paying job at an IT firm in Chennai as a developer. A turning level got here in her life when she got here again to her hometown throughout her second maternity go away in 2017.
“I seen that the looms in my hometown had diminished from 7,500 to solely 2,500. A number of weavers migrated to different industries to work as night time watchmen, employees in textile mills, and catering companies. They moved to cities to earn a every day wage of Rs 150. This pushed the group into poverty and ultimately they began marrying off their women at tender ages,” she provides.
She was decided to breathe new life right into a declining handloom business. “I used to be born and introduced up in the identical space as these weavers. I felt like doing one thing for the society and reviving this artwork,” she provides.
Kalaiyarasi spoke to weavers to know the gaps behind this waning artwork. “I got here to know that the youthful generations don’t wish to have interaction in weaving. The loom additionally occupies a number of house, usually taking 6×6 toes space within the room,” provides the 36-year-old.
To make the work fascinating and interesting, she manufactured DIY handloom kits with the assistance of weavers. They assist her with the designs and assembling of the looms with the method taking wherever between 2-5 days. Occupying much less house, it may be utilized by anybody, from kids to senior residents to weave materials from yarns.
Together with her startup ‘Raatai Handloom’, Kalaiyarasi launched three sorts of looms. On the first degree is ‘WeaveMate’ which comes with a loom body and can be utilized to make purses, wall hangings, mats, coasters, and pouches.
On the second degree is ‘WeaveAlly’ which can be utilized to make barely larger merchandise like purses, stoles, scarves, headbands, and desk runners. On the third degree, she has ‘WeaveFit’ which can be utilized to weave towels and handkerchiefs.
These DIY kits come together with a person handbook with a QR (Fast Response) code that hyperlinks to tutorial movies, making certain a seamless studying course of. “By merely scanning it, it is possible for you to to entry a video that showcases learn how to use the loom. It’s so straightforward that anybody can design their cloth,” she says.
Initially, she even mortgaged her jewelry to start out the enterprise, receiving funding from NSRCEL, an incubator of IIM-Bangalore and Rs 10 lakh funds from StartupTN’s Tanseed scheme from chief minister MK Stalin in 2022 to scale up the work.
Previously two years, she has bought 268 such looms. She has established a buyer base throughout Tamil Nadu in addition to in metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru by way of her web site.
Making weaving enjoyable for all
Through the years, Kalaiyarasi discovered that these DIY looms not solely function an progressive instrument for crafting but in addition aids in growing wonderful motor abilities and lowering display time amongst kids.
“This engagement in artistic actions is a more healthy different to extended gadget use amongst kids. It may probably alleviate signs of social melancholy amongst them. Additionally, kids and adults alike discover pleasure and a way of accomplishment by way of the artwork of weaving. Kids take pleasure in weaving purses and pouches to reward their mother and father,” she provides.
Malathy, who purchased all three classes of looms for her younger daughters aged eight and 11 years, shares the expertise of utilizing the looms. “Weaving on looms is skillful work however my daughters have learnt this artwork shortly. They patiently work on these looms and discover weaving enjoyable.”
Her daughters have made wall hangings, mats, purses, purses, and even clothes for his or her toys. “They aren’t imitating any work however are unleashing their creativity. Now, they’re making an attempt to make clothes for themselves. Such an exercise is extraordinarily useful to cut back display time amongst children,” she provides.
Remarkably, Kalaiyarasi additionally famous the therapeutic advantages of weaving in kids with disabilities.
Sharing an account of a mom and her youngster with ‘particular wants’, she says, “The mom knowledgeable me that her youngster can not sit nonetheless in a single place for greater than three minutes. She was very afraid of the concept of taking him to study weaving, a ability that requires focus and a focus.”
“However after the primary 5 minutes, the kid discovered the work partaking and continued to weave for half an hour with out getting distracted. His mom grew to become so overwhelmed to see this that she broke down. The child had anger or temperamental points however weaving offered him calmness. This gave me an concept to introduce DIY kits as occupational remedy for kids with disabilities,” she provides.
The initiative has already gained traction with 10 colleges exhibiting curiosity in together with weaving as a part of their curriculum, alongside partnerships for homeschooling, workshops, and textile exhibitions.
For Kalaiyarasi, this enterprise is not only a enterprise however a heartfelt mission to contribute to society. “We aren’t solely doing the enterprise however we’re doing one thing for the group. Listening to tales of such kids and moms may be very rewarding for me. I’m glad that this initiative is demonstrating how conventional abilities could be tailored for contemporary instances to foster creativity and wellbeing of the group,” she provides.
For extra particulars, you’ll be able to test the looms at Raatai Handloom’ official web site.
Edited by Padmashree Pande. All photographs: Kalaiyarasi.
