Japanese ikat, traditionally known as kasuri, is a beautiful example ( as are they all) of the way each culture where ikat exists has made it their own. Initially this weaving was done largely by daughters of farmers in the countryside, often using natural indigo.
The loin loom is one of the earliest and most ancient ways of weaving used by women throughout the world. In ancient India, it was considered a sacred act linking the rhythms of the human body through breath, prana or life force, to the weave.
Much has been written about the revival of traditional techniques in Indian textile creation – from their adaptation to please a modern Indian aesthetic to their embellishment for the international market. Indeed, there is a hub of such activity in India, especially in the cities where top designers display garments inspired by traditional techniques, updated for a modern and urban clientele.
If we’re being delicate, the distinction between a work of art and a craft is an issue of semantics. In truer terms, the distinction is xenophobic drivel. The term, “art,” is often used to describe creative work that is finished for its own sake.
Khazana sells incense, books on holistic healing, and art from cultures that support the medical efficacy of practices like acupuncture. Customers often visit to purchase items that will help them to cleanse their environments- be they new homes, or their own minds.
Winter days at Khazana are meditative. They are darker and quieter than sunny spring and fall days, when the windows open with the shop doors in the morning. They are colder than summer days, when the air conditioning blasts on high. Despite its stillness, the shop continues to draw inquisitive customers.
Unless you’ve been hibernating in a windowless winter bunker, or vacationing south of the Mason Dixon line, you know that spring is upon the Midwest. Minnesotans, rejoice! Now is the time to congratulate ourselves for having survived the tundra temperatures, and to celebrate by indulging ourselves in the newly hospitable outdoors.
Khazana recently began selling yak milk soap. When I first saw the packages of soap among our displays, I guessed they would fly, snatched up by hipster skincare enthusiasts
I arrived at Khazana today to find that Anju had written a new quote on our office blackboard. In blue and white cursive, “Destiny is not a fixed thing- it is something that you create.” No author, no context, just a message upon which to meditate.
On Thursday, October 26th, Theresa Hutch will be presenting her new White Sage Tarot Deck at Khazana during our Setting Up Sacred Space event. She will also talk about her creative process and the daily rituals that she has built to support it