The Bhatt women artists (Maya, Anju and Santosh) who guided this workshop told us: we could make these puppets without even looking, in the dark if we had to. That's how deep the knowledge lives - in our hands, our muscles, our memory.
We talk about mastery, design, and sustainability. But they've been living it for generations. What we call "good design" today, they've practiced for centuries: nothing is wasted.
Kathputli isn't just their craft - it's how their nomadic community has survived. It's radical reuse before we had a term for it: every puppet born from waste, evolving as new scraps arrive. This isn't just a craft. It's a living system.
In ReThread, we barely scratched the surface. But watching participants disappear into the making, guided by these incredible women - something shifted.
Their skills are priceless. Their resilience, necessary to learn from.
Grateful to
@jaipur.artweek and
@jaipurvirasat for creating space for this exchange.
Thank you
@simran.kanwaria for beautifully documenting the workshop and giving birth to this reel. Rhea and
@_jantabo for assisting. Workshop ideated and facilitated by
@supriyabcd with
@mayabhat889 , Anju and Santosh.
