There are around 15 different stages of dying, washing, reprinting…the technique of block printing is more than 3000 years old. In Kutch, Gujarat, it´s practiced solely by men.

Known as ajrakh, this double-sided textiles is made by the Kathri block-printers from Ajarakhpur in Gujarat. Ajrakh is realated to the arabic world for blue azrak.

Naga, the snake, has a central role in the textiles of the Lao Tai from Laos. She can be found meandering across almost all Tai fabrics. The Tai believe they are intimately connected to Naga. In an interview, one of the Lao Tai weavers from Houaphanh in Laos explained: »If the snake notices that we aren’t wearing any textiles with her image, then she might think we don’t respect her and then, maybe, she’ll kill us.“

Kutch, Gujarat, India: Lac, a material taken from insect resin, has been used in Indian craft for centuries. Coloured lacquer is applied to wood by heat through turning with a hand lathe.

Taquile/Peru: This old knitting men knows how to act like a super model. He is doing his lovely job in front of the knitting village collective. The whole island is under self determination of the indigenous people. Investors from abroad are not allowed ↑

La Paz/Bolivien: If you want to make a break as a weaver of bolivian textiles stop weaving patterns for a while and doing this kind of test screen pattern in between. 

Pottery from Romania is a goal. 

In Guizhou, south china, the miao people make wonderful batik textiles. They use paper stencils and rice paste for the resisting dying and printing process. The tiger is a symbol to keep the evil spirits away.

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Guizhou/South china: To give a textile a crisp, laquered look the fabirc is dipped repeatendly in an indigo bath, beaten with a wooden mallet and treated with secret recipes with blood, eggwhite and other stuff. At the end you can fold pleats inside like paper. 

For the people from central asia Ikat is something like the tartan from scotland. Uzbek believe that all textiles and patterns go together. When Russia won the great game with Britain for central asia, English textiles were largely replaced by industrial goods from Russia. 

„The style of Armenian carpets is characterized by a close unity and integrity of vegetal, zoomorphic and geometric motifs, each of them being aimed at expressing and amplifying a definite idea.“ (Armenian Carpet Art, Yerevan 2012)

In Central Asia they call Ikat textiles Abr, named after their cloud-like patterning. The warp and the weft are dyed prior the weaving. The warp threads are dyed by wrapping certain parts of them in order to obtain a given pattern. This requires an enormous amount of skill.

The folk art in romania is strongly wedded to work, husbandry, community, traditions and belief. The style is characterised by balance and symmetry, and a very striking concept of rhythm. The same can be said about Romania as a country.

Gujarat/Indien: The Rani-ki-Vav step-well in Patan is the oldest and finest in Gujarta. The weaver from the nearly Patola silk weaving workshop said that the textile was in Patan before the step-well, not the opposite way.

India/Gujarat: Patan Patola is a double ikat textile, that means both, the warp and the weft, are dyed before the weaving. As a result patterns and colours are extraordinary vibrant and elaborate.  With such thin silk thread it takes a lot of time and it´s an extreme test of precision and planning. A sari starts around 10 000 $.

Northern Romania: The patterns and motifs of Romanian blouses refer to local traditions and provide clues to the marital, social and/or economic status of the person wearing them. After all, Romania had been occupied by the Turks for centuries, which, inevitably also left its traces in the motifs and elaboration of folk art.

Kutch/Gujarat/India: The walls of this Meghwali roundhouse in Hodka village in Kutch are constructed with whitewashed mud and dung and a lot of mirrors. Normaly the toran is hanging above the door, here he´s  protecting the inhabitants agains the devils coming out of the TV.

The general rule governing interior design seems to be: the more, the better. The close arrangement of textiles along the walls, stacked cushions on beds – embroidered side turned out to face potential visitors – as well as the many tapestries and table cloths seem to point to a horror vacui, a kind of fear of empty spaces.