AauzarRise by Lifting Others

Rise by Lifting Others

A handloom is a weaving machine that has been in use for centuries. The earliest evidence of its use can be traced back to 4400 BC which has been perfected over time. The ones used today have come a long way but still, need to address some serious issues related to posture and efficiency. Not to mention the hefty amount of money weavers need to spend to get one. These issues have been prevailing in the craft sector since always. 

Chiri Maya Maharjan, one of the traditional weavers from the Lalitpur district, weaves beautiful pieces of clothes daily to earn a livelihood. She has an old handloom that has been in use for three consecutive generations of her family. This legacy of manufacturing handmade clothes continues. She has beautifully maintained the culture and traditional values by choosing not to use modern power looms. However, the reward of preserving the culture comes with its price. The loom, being old-fashioned, is not scientifically designed and demands bad posture as well as frequent halts during the work. A study has shown that continuous bending of the back and maintaining a bad posture while knitting or weaving not only affects the backbone but the internal organs and the fetus, in the case of pregnant women, as well.

As a team of mechanical engineering students, Aauzar aims to solve these long existent problems associated with traditional equipment and enable the art of engineering in craftsmanship. We design a newly-engineered and affordable configuration of handloom. We strive to integrate the technical skills in the world of art and craft to adapt the machine to changing needs of society. It is quite rare for engineers to be interested in crafts and traditional values. The few engaged have been working to make lives easier for craftsmen. We aspire to take a step forward in exploring Nepali art culture and in inspiring the new generation by making them aware of the beauty of ethnicity backed up by science. The gap between traditional art and engineering needs to be filled and we continue to do so with constant improvement in designs of the loom to make it user-friendly for end-users like Chiri Maya and many other Nepali women that relate to the weaving industry.




The concept of Aauzar initially started when one of the members of the team, Shreya, saw her grandmother knit in an old chair. Her grandmother would not sit in a proper posture and her back was facing some serious pain. A handloom would do the job better but only at the expense of more space and cost for each one. Similar is the case for many other Nepali women involved in the weaving industry as most of them either do not have access to affordable handlooms or are using traditionally manufactured ones.
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