| Designer Senaka de Silva has been busy - far away from the Colombo catwalk, in a tsunami ravaged village in the East of the country. These days his thoughts are most often in Maradumane, a village in the Ampara district where he has been working with the 600-700 handloom weavers teaching them design and colour techniques that would enable them to bring their traditional craft to a wider audience.
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| Senaka de Silva |
Hard hit by decades of civil war and devastated by the 2004 tsunami, Maradamune had the highest death toll in the island. Struggling to revive their livelihood, the Maradamune weavers have just managed to set up their weaving centres with minimum facilities.
Weaving is a way of life for this community and in each and every home, there are at least two or three looms, says Senaka, explaining that this had been a tradition handed down from generation to generation and the weavers are highly skilled.
They earn their living by producing handwoven fabrics, and interestingly, most of the weavers are male. The quality of weaving has been of a high standard over the years, but unfortunately due to financial constraints most of the weavers only earn a small wage for their labour. Of the 700 weavers, only about 200 run small businesses, the rest having to depend on middlemen to find buyers for their products.
In early May, Senaka in association with Vinitha Seneviratne of the Ministry of Textile Industry Development conducted a five-day workshop on Colour and Design Training for the Maradamune weavers. The programme organised by Sewa Lanka Foundation and funded by IOM, was an eye-opener for these weavers, taking them on a journey of unlimited possibilities.
Taught colour theory, introduced to the colour wheel and complimentary colour co-ordination, colour blankets, and visual aid warp designing, they responded with enthusiasm.
“They were used to working with colours like black, grey, mustard and we showed them how to bring in vivid colours – the pinks, the reds, the blues and combine these to best advantage, said Senaka, adding that he also introduced them to the idea of making shawls, sarees and blankets rather than only sarongs. “Even with a saree, they needed to think in terms of the border, the palu,” he says, stressing the importance of the weavers being designers in their own right.
“It was for me such a wonderful experience to be able to share my knowledge and expertise with these expert master weavers and within those five days we wove some lovely fabrics. Each person was given to do a sarong design on paper and taught how to achieve maximum results visually using limited colours.”
Senaka is now planning on bringing the work of the Maradumane weavers to a wider market- the top Colombo fashion stores.
“We are trying to give them maximum exposure in Colombo by trying to hold an exhibition where we would introduce them to local and foreign buyers. It would be ideal if the state could have provincial design centres but until such time, we have to help,” he says.
The workshop was attended by 30 weavers and two future workshops have been planned to train 60 more weavers.
A veteran in the field, having been in design for over 35 years in Sri Lanka, Senaka also worked as a consultant designer to the Textile Ministry and over the years has held similar workshops in all provinces and helped in many of the Ministry’s annual exhibitions. |
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