It is not always easy to remember these days that the kantha was once a homely piece of cloth embroidered by a woman for a newborn, or her family, a personal, intimate expression of her love, memories ...

Winters in Bangladesh are very cold. Families with little means could not afford blankets to keep warm. One day, a group of women cut their old saris to size and placed one length of cloth above the ...

Come winter, the quilting tradition of South Asia comes into the limelight and a significant aspect of that is the Kantha tradition. Traditionally, the word Kantha refers to a specific type of quilt- ...

For generations, heart and soul, many women in Chapainawabganj, as in some other parts of the country, have sewn nakshi kantha (embroidered quilt). More than just needlework, imbued in each design of ...

Tajkira Begum learned kantha embroidery the way many girls in her village of Nanoor in West Bengal did—by watching other women. She was about seven years old when her mother and grandmother began ...

When Rukmini boarded the flight to Delhi from Kolkata, it was the first time she had ever travelled to Delhi. It was her first flight, and only the second city she had seen outside her village.

India has always been a land of jackets, whether it is the sherwani, bandhgala or the Nehru jacket. Now, designer Payal Jaggi gives them a twist with kantha fabric and a new revival story. Jaggi ...

CHENNAI: Melded with laborious sketching, needling and threading, a simple cloth can be transformed into a melange of stories. From simple concentric shapes to intricate designs, kantha is a form of ...

The thousand-year-old upcycling handicraft was traditionally a canvas for ordinary women to tell their stories and express their fears and hopes. Now it's hugely popular again, writes Kalpana Sunder.