Designer profile: Shefaly, The Carpet Workshop

Last month we featured the Carpet Workshop, a income generating project that trains women on carpet and Kilim weaving. We we were eager to learn more about their designer and supervisor Shefaly and caught up with her recently.

IMG_3806I have been working with the Carpet Workshop over the last 12 years and started here in 2004. I went through a six month training course in carpet weaving and enjoyed it. I felt that this was skill and job that didn’t have too many challenges.

I first received training from Br. Erick (a Taize brother who developed this project through the Protibondhi Community Center), and continued under his instruction as I developed my weaving skills. I experimented with different colours while working on my technique. After receiving this initial training, I began to look at magazines, design books, nature and use my own creativity in creating designs for the carpets. I make my designs on paper and on the computer and make sure to keep all my designs.

Sometimes I experiment with new designs using fabric, plastic and jute. I have never tried the traditional carpet designs but like to create designs with animals such a bird or fish and have also used designs that incorporate boats, trees, hills and other scenes from nature.

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I am now a supervisor at the Carpet Workshop and teach and train others in weaving. Many of the women we employ are either deaf and/or mute and communicate via sign language. I very much enjoy my work, both designing and teaching and training the women. I’m a proud of the fact that I can now teach others how to weave and produce carpets and Kilim.

For more information about the Carpet Workshop and the Protibondhi Community Center visit: http://www.pccbd.org/index.php

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