BAYA STUDIO
Baya Studio designs affordable technology for handloom weavers in India to empower them to bring new designs from paper to fabric while maintaining their traditional weaving techniques.
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We connect these weavers to both a local and global customer base that has a demand for sustainable, artisanal, traditional and customizable fabrics provided at an affordable price.
Our mission is to turn weavers from anonymous workers to designers and artists like they have been in the past while creating a mainstream platform for socially and environmentally sustainable textiles production.
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2019
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Separation of design and manufacturing has resulted in a celebrated class of designers and an impoverished class of producers. We believe that integrating designing and manufacturing can reduce inequality by empowering weavers.
Weavers still use technology invented in 1801. New technology developed since then has been focused on industrial looms.
A weaver starts by sketching on a squared sheet of paper.
This pattern is then punched onto cards using a machine like the one shown.
The cards are attached to the Jacquard head on the loom.
I have developed a product that enables a weaver to bypass all these steps which cost hundreds of dollars and takes days to complete. It enables them to instantly transfer a design from paper to the loom using their smartphone.
