Simon Marks Textiles | INSPIRATION

The romance of travel to distant places, other cultures and the diversity of people met.

Finding places that interest me, mostly off the beaten tracks, the ruined hilltop fortress of Chanderi, the town nestling below, weavers of Gossamer silk and gold thread from times past and present, purveyors to Maharajas and Nawabs.

Sumba, the village of Umabara. Visiting the shaded enclave where Ibu Gunna Jilik works the wonder of turning indigo leaves into dyed blue yarns. No man may touch her pots & the modest area is fenced on all sides behind the residential area, near to a grove of Mengkudu trees which are scattered around monolithic-like carved stone structures. Ancestral sentinels, standing guard.

Dyestuffs found on my travels and the way they are used: a Chinese merchant’s old rambling shop in Chiang-Mai, mysterious in the half-lit shadowy recesses with sacks and shelves full to bursting with strange shapes, smells and textures. It was in this cavern of curiosities that I first came across Lac.

A visit to  collectors & scholars of rare and beautiful textiles in Bhuj. Their antique textiles fired up my interest to go and meet the people who still produced work of such finesse nowadays, & make pieces of my own

Traditions of hand-weaving, hand-dyeing and hand-printing, the craftspeople who still create them day today and the communities who still wear the textiles produced.

Durries woven on a ground-loom in a small hamlet in the middle of Rajasthan close to the Thar dessert, no bus goes there, and electricity is a rare commodity. Goat wool, Camel wool, & cotton yarns.

How stitch, wax and colour combine and contrast becoming transformed into something to be worn, draped or simply contemplated. The hand-spun, hand-woven cotton of Tuban, its roughness providing a counterpoint to the crisp lines that can be achieved from batik and the fluidity of silk, the unmistakable warm and cinnamony smell of released wax on cloth.

A worught-iron balcony in the port of Mandvi,stone jali in a mosque in Lakpat. The filagree curves battered by sea & time, the fierce light shining creating  bright outlines and dark shadows. Perfect for a block-print.