Kubsa Handcrafted Textiles

India | Handloom Weaving & Quilting

Kubsa Handcrafted Textiles is a design-led textile studio founded in 2019 by Geeta Patil. She was born into an agrarian family in northern Karnataka and spent her early years surrounded by the region's everyday handloom traditions. Growing up in the 1980s, it was common for women to wear Ilkal and Khana textiles daily and for families to sleep under hand-quilted Khowdi bed coverings.

Over time, Geeta watched as these traditions and the livelihoods tied to them began to disappear. That loss stayed with her and led her to study Textile Design at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, where she graduated in 2004. For more than a decade after, she worked across craft clusters throughout India, gaining experience before returning to her home region to establish Kubsa as a way to revive the textile practices she had known from her youth.

At Kubsa, Geeta brings both cultural proximity and a strong design perspective to the revival of Ilkal and Khana handloom weaving and Khowdi hand quilting. The studio works with more than 120 artisans across northern Karnataka, including weavers, dyers, and quilters who work from home and small workshops. Quilting is carried out using traditional concentric stitching, transforming reused and upcycled textiles into jackets, cushions, and bags. The Kubsa workshop has become a place for shared work, mutual support, and open conversation, including regular sessions with women doctors focused on health and nutrition.

The group’s materials are sourced within India and include cotton and silk, with natural or azo-free dyes. Artisans are paid sustainable wages and collectively set wage levels for the group. Kubsa also supports women artisans through health and wellness sessions, interest-free emergency loans, and shared workspaces that restore pride in textile traditions, which were once at risk of being lost.