Saturday 2 & Sunday 3 July 2022, The Art of Hand-Spinning with Nila House

10:00 - 13:00 BST (British Summer Time)

Hosted on Zoom by Nila House

NILA is a non-profit dedicated to honouring, preserving and promoting India’s vast landscape of natural dye and handloom traditions. Through its wide range of platforms and projects, Nila serves as a beacon of excellence, inspiring members of the global crafts and design community to move towards new levels of accountability and social responsibility through craft preservation, circular design and regenerative practices.

NILA HOUSE in Jaipur is public-facing space of Nila’s work across India. Created as an environment for the holistic experience of culture, rare craft processes and knowledge-sharing, Nila House has become a much-loved atmosphere, welcoming visitors from all over the world.

Outline of the workshop
Hand-spinning is a skill that is both soul-nourishing and practical. With a basic guide to the fundamentals and dedicated practice, these are skills that can be mastered and promise to bring value to your creative expression. Learning how to spin your own natural fibre yarn and then create beautiful textile or embroidery pieces with it is a wonderful way to truly appreciate the magic of handmade textiles.

The two-part workshop has been designed by Nila as a comprehensive introduction to the craft of hand spinning, with in-depth and step-wise guidance to set-up and work with your spindle and peti-charkha. The workshop will give you a foundational knowledge that get your started on your journey with hand-spinning.
Day one will cover the fundamentals of spinning, showing you how to set up and spin cotton yarn with a simple ‘Takli’ - a traditional Indian spindle.

On day two, you will learn to set up and then spin cotton yarn on the ‘Peti Charkha’ - a double-wheel spinning mechanism that comes in a portable box. Since both mechanisms are easily transportable, you can make spinning a daily ritual.

The workshop will be recorded and made available to you after the workshop. 

Level of experience
This workshop is open to all levels of experience and creativity. The workshop has been designed to introduce hand-spinning to beginners but is also perfect for those looking for answers to questions that will help grow their practice. The Nila team will share their research and experience working with hand-spun, handwoven textiles practices in India, to inspire and open up the wonderful world of these grounding and expressive crafts to you.

Materials
A materials pack will be sent to participants in advance of the workshop containing:

• Peti charkha (spinning box)
• Takli (spindle)
• Cotton slivers
• Spinning pouch
• Instruction guide

Caution: the material pack contains small and sharp-edged tools which must be used carefully. Keep out of the reach of children.

Please note: material packs are shipped on an insured, trackable delivery service. Any customs duties, delays, lost or undeliverable packs are the responsibility of the customer. Once a material packs leaves the workshop tutors' hands with a tracking number, the seller has no further obligation to the buyer.

Workshop cancellation policy
All places reserved on workshops are non-refundable.

If you require additional information about this workshop please contact Catherine Harris, events@selvedge.org.