India Archives - Botanical Colors

Video From FEEDBACK FRIDAY: Shradha Kochhar

On our last FEEDBACK FRIDAY we had Shradha Kochhar. Shradha, born in Delhi, India, is a textile artist and knitwear designer now based in New York. Best known for her home spun and hand knitted ‘khadi’ sculptures using ‘kala cotton’ – an inherently organic cotton strain indigenous to India, her work is at an intersection of material memory, sustainability and intergenerational healing. Focusing on generating a physical archive of personal and collective south Asian narratives linked to women’s work, invisible labor and grief, the work is large scale and will exist beyond whispers over generations. Check out Shradha’s work on … Read more

FEEDBACK FRIDAY: This Week in Natural Dye Questions

This week: Darkening walnut with iron and insects used to dye fabrics

FEEDBACK FRIDAY: This Week in Natural Dye Questions

This week: Looking at the longevity of black bean dyeing and using hide glue in an organic vat when dyeing silk and wool.

Plant Dyes Find Home in Chintz

The New York Times writes: Among the 200 objects in “The Fabric of India” exhibition on display through January at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London is a vast chintz tent used by the renowned 17th-century Deccan ruler Tipu Sultan. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the European craze for such Indian chintz, printed cotton fabric with a glazed finish, prompted several governments to tax and even ban imports. Eventually, Europeans began making the fabric themselves. And the Indian industry declined — its skilled, labor- intensive techniques utilizing woodblock printing and meticulous hand painting of floral motifs … Read more