At Crow, our beautiful hand-woven pieces are impossible to make without the help of our dedicated and skilled artisans. Our weavers are the backbone of the production process, who work with such compassion and commitment to their skill, inspiring the team every day.
It takes an army. From teaching the philosophy that we work under at Crow, to ensuring that the weavers know the subtle yet crucial techniques that make a Crow garment what it is, the learning never stops.
Hand-weaving is understood as one of the longest-standing forms of craft. Weaving requires immense concentration, to master the skill of interlinking a set of vertical threads with a set of horizontal ones. Our weavers beautifully practise the talent in our studio, to date.
They work according to their skill level, with the most complicated designs given to those weavers who have the highest skill level, and who are also more efficient in the process. After practising their art for years and years, they’ve reached a point where the designs are ever so gracefully translated from paper to actual fabric, all because of their specialised skill, resulting from years of learning, practising and mastering.
They come in at 8:30 am, ready for work and get on it till 1 pm, where they enjoy an hour and a half for a lunch break. After this, they continue work until 6 pm. They work unceasingly, with only one holiday in a month. On a day like Sunday, the weavers are still working hard to make their living.
Encouraging the idea of a balance, the weavers enjoy light-hearted moments between work, where they indulge in mini parties amongst themselves and celebrate the small joys of life.
Meet our weaver, Deepak, who is a young man, 26 years old. He has been vigorously training under the head weaver, Shamjibhai. Over the years, learning critical skills and the art of weaving has helped him feed his family and make a living under ethical working conditions, here at Crow.
Initially, Deepak wanted to pursue photography and go into another creative field of capturing the world but was asked to follow his family’s tradition of weaving. This is a common culture in India, where the new heirs of a family are introduced to an art that has been evolving and is being mastered throughout generations in their communities. Just like him, his elder brother also works in the same weaving unit as him, establishing the strong bonds that tie Indian families to their crafted professions.
His favourite item to weave is a napkin. He enjoys the simplicity of weaving a napkin, which gives him the creative freedom to create different colours and counts in an instant. He loves seeing his finished product and takes great pride over his work, skill, and craftsmanship.
Deepak truly believes in the beauty of each individual fabric. He celebrates the irregularities as elements of fabric that make it unique, instead of viewing them as defects. He says that threads that are manually inserted are bound to be a little asymmetrical. This imperfection is what Deepak honours and rejoices, as a part of a beautiful, hand-woven piece of garment. His positivity uplifts our spirits at Crow, even when days seem gloomy.
A dedicated weaver, Deepak continues to work hard, be diligent and is assiduous in every garment that is made by him. His commitment to his art is what makes him the brilliant weaver he is, producing beautiful pieces with utmost love and enthusiasm.