Gautam & Amruta Siju (Handloom Weavers)

Gautam Siju comes from a small village Valka of Kutch district where most of the locals are either farmers or cattle herders. He studied mechanical engineering and found a job in a Tyre manufacturing company out of Bhuj and moved along with his wife-Amruta after their marriage in 2021. He become passionate about handloom weaving by observing some of his in-laws and friends but his circumstances were not favorable to him to quit his job where he has been working for 4 years. He started fulfilling his passion of learning handloom weaving technique whenever he had some free time. He learnt weaving from Dayalalji. And later started working for a weaving firm. However it was not easy to do both, job & weaving. So he took a brave step to quit his job and become an independent fulltime weaver.

To better understand design, colour, market, etc he joined a design course at SKV-Adipur. After a year of learning all of these he was still under the economic circumstances that he has to weave for other weavers and earn a daily wage which wasn’t the idea or expectation after all of these. He came to know about a project United Artisans of Kutch on Instagram and asked whether he could join the team of lesser known artisans of Kutch. His pure heart, weaving skills, kindness and circumstances qualified him to be a member of the small team of artisans where they regularly meet, discuss, collaborate, explore new opportunities, sharing network  and knowledge like a Self Help Group (SHG). As a result Gautambhai became more confident and overcoming challenges and focusing more on his creativity rather than worrying for marketing, competition, etc which are usually struggle for many artisans in their initial phase of life.

Both Gautambhai and his wife Amruta are weavers and happily weaving from their home in Kukma village. He brought the old fashioned narrow pit loom back in practice and weaving a forgotten traditional “Khatha (Woolen blankets) besides his regular woven products such as scarves, sarees, etc made out of cotton, silk, bamboo, banana, organic cotton, etc. Both of them are working tirelessly to reach to meet their basic needs and get recognized by the market. Right now United Artisans of Kutch is trying their best to put some light on this weaver couple & inviting students, visitors, designers, anyone who is genuinely interested in the story of the real makers, those whose hands are behind the scenes but not their faces yet.  

Thanks.