Textile treat!

She is dubbed as the first ever Sri Lankan female to qualify abroad as a Chartered Textile Technologist. Going places on her journey of weaving the future, this dame also became the first Sri Lankan woman Fellow of The Textile Institute UK to be felicitated by Moratuwa University’s Department of Integrated Design, Faculty of Architecture for her yeoman service towards the growth of design in Sri Lanka.

Her recent feat is winning The Institute Medal for Design for 2019 from the Textile Institute of UK. Inaugurated in 1971, the award is given to those who have devoted themselves to and made substantial contributions in the fields of textile design and design management. She will be handed the award at the 109th Textile Institute AGM on May 23 in Salford, UK.

The founder of the shaded effect on movement sarees, Chandramani Thenuwara is has an abundance of experience and knowledge in the field. Having worked with rural designers and university students for decades, the gifted lady traces her roots to the era in which she began her stint with painting as a student of Cora Abraham.

“My father, Albert Thenuwara, a lawyer, was a great believer of talent. He nurtured my skills. I entered a preschool run by the renowned Spittle family. Mrs Spittle entered me into Ladies College. My favourite memories of the school were in its chapel. I was mesmerized by its beauty. Later I also attended Good Shepherd’s Convent, Kotahena. I did Science for my Advanced Levels and Maths Physics at University,” she said.

She recalled joining Abraham’s Melbourne Art Classes and being a part of the Young Artists’ Group with enthusiasm.

“We had a little printing press which we managed by ourselves. We met every Sunday at her place to engage in the work,” she reflected with a smile.

Those days when girls reach their 20s parents began thinking about marriage. This was a dreary phrase of Thenuwara’s life as she loathed being paraded before suitors.

“I felt that it is a degrading process. I was teaching at Ananda Balika Vidyalaya then. I came across a news item announcing a trip to Europe for teachers. I was eager to join and soon discovered that Air Ceylon offers tickets under the ‘fly now, pay later’ slogan. I took up that offer and flew with a team of teacher to Europe for around five weeks,” she mused.

Their schedule had been packed so they missed out on a couple of places they had originally planned to visit. Luckily she had been sitting next to the person who was in charge of the tour. As they passed the National Art Gallery in Trafalgar Square she had pointed it out to them and said that they would not be able to visit the venue due to the lack of time in their schedule. Thenuwara had expressed her disappointment about it saying that it is her area of interest. This comment had motivated the organizer to change the programme for her and two other art teachers to visit an arts and craft school in South London.

“They showed us around and told us about the three year course that they offer. I expressed my wish to study there. I had taken some of my work with me for people who are interested so they saw some of my work too. When I returned there was a letter waiting for me offering me the opportunity to follow a one year course with them,” she said, adding that this is another example of the dose of compassion that she met with during her tour in England.

Though her father had been enthusiastic to allow her to study abroad they had the obstacle of not being able to spend their own money to follow a course they desired abroad. The criteria was that the course you wish to follow should not be available in Sri Lanka and it should be useful to Sri Lanka.

“One of the members of the Young Artists’ Group was related to the first female MP Florence Senanayake. He asked me to visit her and explain the situation. Only Fine Arts was available in Sri Lanka. Therefore I was able to get my exchange which was 45 pounds per month,” she added noting that she was able to enter the college in around 1961.

The course had been tailor made so that she can benefit the maximum out of it during her stay. As the months passed Thenuwara began looking for a job to prolong her stay in the UK.

“Colour bar existed so you cannot just apply for a job without finding out about their attitude to foreigners. One day I was at the Ceylon Tea Center at the National Art Gallery when a Sri Lankan lady joined me and inquired about my whereabouts. She advised me to apply for the post of tea demonstrator.”

Though she had doubts if she would succeed in becoming a good business woman, Thenuwara applied for the job and got it. She had to visit different places in England each week and offer tea to people at a tea making unit at the stores dressed in a saree.

“It was a dream occupation as I loved to travel. I explored England during my visits,” she said.

She came across the concept of engaging in textile designing during this era. She found out about The Textile Institute in Salford and applied and also got a study grant. She studied Textile Technology and even got the Governor’s Prize.

She returned to Sri Lanka after around a decade. Her first occupation was at a screen printing batik industry. Later she moved onto the Department of Small Industries as a Textile Designer. She was responsible for lifting the standards and innovation of hand-weaving design of the Government handloom industry. She also extended her services towards educating the new generation of textile/fashion designers.

Here she developed a distinct body of textiles and fabrics, constantly blending artistic influences from Europe with local technologies and aesthetics.

Speaking about her novel concept of shaded saree designs she said that shaded fabrics were popular in printings but not weaving during the 1980s.

“I did the shadings effect for home textiles first before trying my hand at it on saree designs. The first set of sarees was black with shadings in the border. They were very dramatic and were an instant hit at the market,” she explained adding that now designers have taken up this technique and have deviated from spectrum colours and have gone for a broader canvas of shades. She notes that the challenging aspect of the technique is that it requires a lot of patience.

“If you have one colour or stripes, it is clear how you can handle it but shadings is more complicated. You need to change the colouring one by one,” she said.