Craft Category: Handmade Textile

Craft Location: Maheshwar

Specialization: Silk & cotton handloom textile with dobby design

Name of Artisan: Tousif Ansari

Contact No: 7869507997

Email-id: ansari.heritage@yahoo.com

Address: Joona Bazar, Ram Mandir, Maheshwar Madhya Pradesh



Tousif turned 27 in 2018, and he is the youngest weaver in one of the traditional weaving families of Maheshwar. Two of his elder brothers and a sister-in-law along with Tousif are weaving Maheshwari textiles on handlooms. His mother has never learned to weave but she has taken on responsibility for the pre-loom work.

When he was 15, from his father and uncle, Tousif learned weaving. He soon became an expert weaver by devoting many hours to practice his craft. However, he has never compromised with his formal education which he considers important for fulfilling his dream, which is to start up a handloom enterprise of his own.

He has completed his 12th standard of schooling in commerce as well additional technical education. He has diplomas in apparel manufacturing technology, in fashion design technology, and a certificate in hand dyeing and hand block printing through Weavers Service Center (WSC), Indore. Also, he has developed a good command over functional English language and trained in computer and internet. Top of these, he worked about a year at Pratibha Syntex as quality auditor in textile, which greatly helped developing his own weaving enterprise in Maheswhar.

Currently, Tousif is managing production & marketing of four looms which is operated by his family. Mostly he sells through Facebook and through selected exhibitions like Kala Ghoda festival, Mumbai.

He has a dream to increase the number of looms at home as well as help his uncle to earn well through weaving. Tousif has great confidence that he can be an excellent partner of potential clients because of his great flexibility and technical knowledge. He will help clients be involved in the process of designing customized handloomed products.