The Sutra Conference Book is now available!

Textiles from India
The Global Trade
Edited by Rosemary Crill

'Sutra : Thread, Ties and Transformations : two thousand years of textile trade between the Indian subcontinent and the world' was a conference held in Kolkata in October 2003. The conference was coordinated by Rosemary Crill, senior curator of the Asian section of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK . Twenty three distinguished scholars from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, UK, USA, Germany, Austria and Australia presented papers on various aspects of the textile trade. These papers have been compiled in this book 'Textiles from India : The Global Trade' to provide an indepth and important work of reference.

The publishing of this book has been made possible by a grant from the Royal Netherlands Embassy, New Delhi.

Sutra is a non profit making organisation based in Kolkata whose objectives are to create awareness of our textile heritage through seminars, workshops, exhibitions, publications and other means in order to revitalise the textile sector that will bring benefit to the grassroot level.

Contact : Amrita Mukerji /Amita Mitra / Darshan Shah
5/1 Anil Moitra Road, Ballygunge, Kolkata 700019 Phone : +91 33 24408937/26/27
email : amita04@rediffmail.com or amrita_mukerji@hotmail.com

Ajit Kumar Das natural dye paintings

Art / Bed Series by Aijt Kumar Das




















Small paintings, unframed
Some small natural dye paintings by the artist Ajit Kumar Das. Ajit Das is reknowned for his 'kalamkaris' which are inspired by natural elements as well as ancient Indian astrology. He is an expert in the field of natural dyes.

The sizes of the paintings are as follows:

Turtle 26x34cm
Sun 28x36cm


All paintings are hand painted with a 'kalamkari pen' as well as brush. The dyes are 100% natural extracts.

utsa Handmade Textile Products

utsa is a small textile and product design studio. Utsa has a main design resource center in Calcutta as well as a workshop in the wilderness out near Shantiniketan, northwest of the city.

At the moment, utsa's focus is to revive and contemporise 'kantha'. Kantha was a way of recycling old sarees by joining layers and layers together with the ordinary 'running stitch'. Utsa uses the same technique to create new versatile products for the home.

By simplifying and contemporising the old designs, the kantha's appeal can reach out to many more people across the globe. This in turn keeps the village women who subsist on this craft employed.