|
Noman's
family has been living in
Dhamadka village for ten generations. The king of Kutch
Rao Desharji once went to Sindh and saw Ajrakh there. He
liked it and brought Noman’s forefathers to Kutch. Since
then they have been creating ajrakh in Dhamadka. Noman’s
uncle, Dr. Ismail, a KRV Advisor, received an honorary
Doctorate for his work in natural colour.
The family traditionally worked for
local customers such as Maldharis, Patels. Noman’s
father Jabbarbhai has received a National award for his
double printing on a sari, and today works for national
and international markets. The family participates in
exhibitions, but mostly works on orders. Noman has
participated in programs in Delhi, Chennai, Goa,
Hyderabad, Banglore, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, etc.
Noman has one year experience in
block printing. He thinks that to be a good artisan one
needs to understand tradition and to combine tradition
and new ideas. Work should be done carefully and
minutely. To create a new design, one should study old
blocks and think of using them with new ideas and
colours. Noman feels that the future of block printing
is fine. The arrival of screen printing has created
competition, but if they learn to work with the market,
the future of hand block printing and natural colours
can be brighter.
Noman longs to go abroad.
|
