VARNAM
ARANYA NATURAL, KERALA
Paramparik Karigar Exhibition 2014
VARNAM
Varnam is a collection of naturally dyed and
printed textiles developed for the Paramparik Karigar Exhibition 2014.
Aranya Natural, with a dedicated workforce of specially abled artisans
who work with techniques such as Shibori, tie & dye, batik, block printing etc creates products
such as saris, stoles and fabrics that are dyed using locally sourced materials
such as tea waste, pine cones, roots etc.
Being a short term project, it was difficult to get new blocks
made within the stipulated time. Therefore the approach involved
working with materials available in the unit.
After studying the existing work, it was noticed that there were products
specifically dedicated to each technique. Therefore it was felt that there was scope for exploration
by combining these techniques in products. The unit also had a lot of old wooden blocks
that had remained unused in a long time, which could be reused.
Batik + Blockprint. The white batik print has been achieved by dabbing wax with the rear side of the block,
which seemed interesting compared to the front/design side of the block.
Batik + Blockprint. The mauve batik print area and the red alum blockprint area
have been achieved using the rear sides of 2 blocks.
The simple forms in the products were largely abstract expressions
of surfaces and objects in the local surroundings ranging from insects to
bark of trees to hills and streams.
A library of swatches was first developed to serve as trials
and also to be kept for future reference, some of which were translated to final products
for the Paramparik Karigar Exhibition 2014.
