cultural textiles.

In my second year of my Bachelor of Design, I was starting to plan ahead for the professional placement that was to come in fourth year. I had begun to explore fair trade and was interested in pursuing a textiles career that empowered the poor.

I visited the office of the Head of Design, Liz Williamson.
“I’ve been considering where to do my professional placement and I wondered whether you knew where I could go for a fair trade internship?”
“In Australia?”
“…Yes?” (What a bizarre question, I thought, where else!)
“I know of plenty in India”

India! Of all places! Until that point I had never thought of going to India. To be honest, it wasn’t a place I desired to go. But as I left Liz’s office the thought started to tick around in my head.

Shortly afterwards, Liz was offered 12 places in a 3 week ‘Cultural Textiles Course’ in Ahmedabad, India. If it weren’t for the scholarships they offered that year I wouldn’t have even been able to consider going. But by this point I was completely convinced that this was what I was meant to do.

Liz took a group of COFA students, me included, to Gujarat in January 2012. We spent two weeks in Ahmedabad and one week in Bhuj, visiting a variety of textile artisans with a small group of Indian students from NID. Visiting India was honestly a big shock for me at first but as I got used to the environment I fell in love with the India and particularly the rich culture and history of Indian Textiles. I am sure I inherited this from Liz, with the way she explains and explores textiles, you are bound to be caught up in the admiration for the skill and detail of each piece in each artisan group or museum.