Slow Textiles: Understanding traditional fabric making and maintaining
Virtual Event
Thursday, May 15 9am EST / 1pm UTC / 6:30pm IST
REGISTER HERE
EVENT DESCRIPTION
In this event, we will learn to understand and appreciate traditional, sustainable fabrics like Ajrakh from Kutch or linen from flax. These traditional fabrics and textile bringing practices help us in the maintenance of cultural heritage, ecosystems, and livelihoods. These textiles are not just eco-friendly but also part of an age-old practices that sustain both the environment and artisan communities.
Together we will learn from Dr. Ismail Mohmed Khatri and Leslie Schroeder about the making and maintenance of traditional fabrics, dyes, and prints. At the end of their presentations, we’ll open up the space for a questions, and a conversion about textiles.
We’d love to feature your questions to the presenters! Email the team at Repair Cafe Collective India (response2chre@gmail.com) to submit your questions.
SPEAKERS
Dr. Ismail Mohmed Khatri
Dr. Ismail Mohamed Khatri became a master of block printing by the age of 14 and holds an honorary PhD from De Montfort University, UK. Ajrakh is no ordinary art form — it is a rare and intricate process, where printing on both sides of the fabric with perfect alignment demands tremendous skill, patience, and devotion. Using only natural ingredients — precious elements like lime, hard to find and delicate to handle — every print becomes a conversation between earth, water, and human hand. Dr. Ismail has printed for both the royal courts and the humble shepherds of rural India, honoring every life with the timeless beauty of Ajrakh. He has carried the soul of this tradition across the world, participating in exhibitions throughout India, Australia, the USA, and Europe. After the devastating earthquake of 2001, he helped build Ajrakhpur — a village that holds the beating heart of Ajrakh even today. Currently, he is recreating traditional block print pieces inspired by ancient fabrics unearthed at Fustat, Egypt, and creating Ajrakh samples with traditional motifs like ‘maleer’ — preserving a living legacy for future generations to study.
Leslie Schroeder
Leslie’s background is a blend of practical skills, community engagement, and a deep connection to nature. She enjoyed fourteen years as a stay-at-home homeschooling parent of two which provided her the flexibility of time to deepen into the contemporary fiber crafts of sewing, knitting, and learning to weave on a floor loom, while also exploring traditional textile skills of twining wild cordage and hand tanning buckskins. Finding continuity from all that is ancient and modern in fiber flax, Leslie became smitten with linen. Drawing it all together is an inspiration that there is something sacred in mending our relationship with our clothes.
Founder of Midwest Linen Revival, Leslie has been enthusiastically working to bring all that she has in passion and organizing skill into reviving a fiber-flax industry in The Midwest.
She sleeps outside whenever she can.
We are grateful for our partners at Repair Cafe Collective India who are our guest hosts in this event!
REGISTER HERE
ACCESSIBILITY
This event will take place online. This event will be primarily held in English, we will walk you through how to use closed captioning.