Karma Sonam Bhutia, a 33-year-old textile designer, has an infectious passion for nettle-weaving. Sikkimese by birth, she grew up largely in Rajasthan and Delhi, but now lives in Gangtok and is working to revive the traditional textiles of her home state. Nettle-weaving is a high point of the multidimensional textile work in her ongoing project, Kuzo, which means body in Sikkimese.

One of the many species of nettle, plentiful in the region, is the Himalayan variety. The plant has been a source of fibre for centuries; the stem is cut, the bark removed and peeled, and the fibre extracted. In countries like Nepal, where nettle-weaving is common, it is traditionally converted into cordage for string, ropes and fishing nets. It is also spun into yarn for garments, mats, bags or blankets, either in its natural colour of brown-green straw or blended with ramie, cotton and wool.............Read more

 

 

Source web page: livemint