On the third day of the project the group continued making samplers for the dictionary of designs while conversation around the sewing circle was in full swing with the group acting as a team to ensure all of the traditional designs and motifs used within their craft would be represented by the samplers made.

It was interesting to listen to the groups stories and how they had all come to learn their craft. Most had been passed the skills from their mothers, who had taught them their craft at an early age apart from Shantiben who had only recently picked up the skills from a neighbour fifteen years earlier.

One particularly intriguing story was from the group’s newest member Miraben, who on reminiscing about how she had learnt the craft from her mother at a very young age explained how she had also helped her mother to make a specially commissioned and very detailed white on white sari for the famous Bollywood actress, Nargis Dutt (pictured above) who she also got to meet once the commissioned was completed.

It was also interesting to learn how the Jamnaben and her husband Premjibhai acted as agents, helping to bring in large bulk orders from clients such as Fab-India and equally distributed the work throughout the village helping the community to find sustainable work.