Rising up within the lanes of Salangapalayam village surrounded by way of weavers, Kalaiyarasi Ramachandran, returned to her native land in Tamil Nadu years later to seek out the standard craft death. Thru her startup Raatai Handloom, she has remodeled handloom weaving right into a DIY job.
Kalaiyarasi Ramachandran spent her formative years admiring the huge handlooms within the old fashioned 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 way of the weavers was once magical to her.
“I might in moderation watch the nice threads being woven within the loom. We’d concern sitting close to the weavers because the paintings required focal point 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 space, so I might sneak to the weavers’ houses and recognize the method,” she stocks with The Higher India.
As she grew up, Kalaiyarasi went on to check pc science and secured a well-paying activity at an IT corporate in Chennai as a developer. A turning level got here in her existence when she got here again to her native land right through her 2nd maternity depart in 2017.
“I realized that the looms in my native land had diminished from 7,500 to simply 2,500. A large number of weavers migrated to different industries to paintings as evening watchmen, staff in textile turbines, and catering companies. They moved to towns to earn a day-to-day salary of Rs 150. This driven the group into poverty and sooner or later they began marrying off their women at gentle ages,” she provides.
She was once decided to respire new existence right into a declining handloom business. “I used to be born and taken up in the similar space as the ones weavers. I felt like doing one thing for the society and reviving this artwork,” she provides.
Kalaiyarasi spoke to weavers to grasp the gaps at the back of this waning artwork. “I got here to grasp that the more youthful generations don’t wish to interact in weaving. The loom additionally occupies numerous house, usually taking 6×6 toes space within the room,” provides the 36-year-old.
To make the paintings attention-grabbing and tasty, she manufactured DIY handloom kits with the assistance of weavers. They lend a hand her with the designs and assembling of the looms with the method taking any place between 2-5 days. Occupying much less house, it may be utilized by any individual, from youngsters to senior electorate to weave materials from yarns.
Together with her startup ‘Raatai Handloom’, Kalaiyarasi presented 3 sorts of looms. On the first stage is ‘WeaveMate’ which comes with a loom body and can be utilized to make handbags, wall hangings, mats, coasters, and pouches.
At the second one stage is ‘WeaveAlly’ which can be utilized to make quite larger merchandise like purses, stoles, scarves, headbands, and desk runners. On the 3rd stage, she has ‘WeaveFit’ which can be utilized to weave towels and handkerchiefs.
Those DIY kits come together with a consumer guide with a QR (Fast Reaction) code that hyperlinks to tutorial movies, making sure a unbroken finding out procedure. “By means of merely scanning it, it is possible for you to to get entry to a video that showcases the best way to use the loom. It’s so simple that anybody can design their cloth,” she says.
To begin with, she even mortgaged her jewelry to begin the undertaking, receiving investment from NSRCEL, an incubator of IIM-Bangalore and Rs 10 lakh budget from StartupTN’s Tanseed scheme from leader minister MK Stalin in 2022 to scale up the paintings.
Previously two years, she has offered 268 such looms. She has established a buyer base throughout Tamil Nadu in addition to in metro towns like Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru via her website online.
Making weaving amusing for all
Over time, Kalaiyarasi discovered that those DIY looms now not handiest function an leading edge instrument for crafting but additionally aids in creating nice motor abilities and decreasing display screen time amongst youngsters.
“This engagement in ingenious actions is a more healthy selection to extended machine use amongst youngsters. It could actually doubtlessly alleviate signs of social despair amongst them. Additionally, youngsters and adults alike in finding pleasure and a way of feat in the course of the artwork of weaving. Youngsters show pride in weaving handbags and pouches to present their folks,” she provides.
Malathy, who purchased all 3 classes of looms for her younger daughters elderly 8 and 11 years, stocks the revel in of the usage of the looms. “Weaving on looms is skillful paintings however my daughters have learnt this artwork temporarily. They patiently paintings on those looms and in finding weaving amusing.”
Her daughters have made wall hangings, mats, handbags, purses, or even clothes for his or her toys. “They don’t seem to be imitating any paintings however are unleashing their creativity. Now, they’re seeking to make clothes for themselves. Such an job is very useful to scale back display screen time amongst youngsters,” she provides.
Remarkably, Kalaiyarasi additionally famous the healing advantages of weaving in youngsters with disabilities.
Sharing an account of a mom and her kid with ‘particular wishes’, she says, “The mum knowledgeable me that her kid can’t sit down nonetheless in a single position for greater than 3 mins. She was once very terrified of the theory of taking him to be told weaving, a ability that calls for focal point and a spotlight.”
“However after the primary 5 mins, the kid discovered the paintings enticing and persevered to weave for part an hour with out getting distracted. His mom changed into so crushed to look this that she broke down. The child had anger or temperamental problems however weaving equipped him calmness. This gave me an concept to introduce DIY kits as occupational treatment for youngsters with disabilities,” she provides.
The initiative has already received traction with 10 colleges appearing passion in together with weaving as a part of their curriculum, along partnerships for homeschooling, workshops, and textile exhibitions.
For Kalaiyarasi, this undertaking isn’t just a industry however a heartfelt venture to give a contribution to society. “We don’t seem to be handiest doing the industry however we’re doing one thing for the group. Listening to tales of such youngsters and moms could be very rewarding for me. I’m happy that this initiative is demonstrating how conventional abilities can also be tailored for contemporary instances to foster creativity and wellbeing of the group,” she provides.
For extra main points, you’ll test the looms at Raatai Handloom’ reliable website online.
Edited by way of Padmashree Pande. All pictures: Kalaiyarasi.