Invited to attend the Global Action through Fashion gathering organized by VAGADU.

Visitors form across the world gathered in Kolkata for this very special occasion to catch a glimpse of the fascinating display of natural dyes and textile samples which stood testimony to the Indian rich textiles and dye history all under one roof at the ICCR building.

For the first time in history surviving volumes of the Indian dye chronicler Thomas Wardle who happened to be William Morris’s dyer during the time of the Arts and Crafts movement in England were on display as well as works of Forbes Watson on Indian textures. I was lucky and priviledged enough to be able to witness such findings and be part of this whole experience.

The seminars were addressesed by distinguished authorities such as Dr. Brenda king from the UK , Dr. Anne-Rose Bringel from France, Dr. Jenny Balfour-Paul from the UK, Ruby Ghuznavi from Bangladesh, Lynda Hillyer and her team from the V&A, UK, Mr.Vinod Daniel from Australia and Mr. Pramod Kumar from the Anokhi museum of handprinting from India.

An exhibition of rare Bengal textiles was also held at ICCR and demonstrations on spinning and weaving, balaposh, kantha, rafoogars and natural dyes were also held at different venues in the city of Kolkata.

This conference was masterminded by Amrita Mukherjee and professionally executed by her team.

 

This Institute offers a wide range of craft orientated courses  for undergraduate and postgraduate students respectively. It is funded by the government as well as the private sector. One of the courses is on traditional textiles where the students have the chance to experiment with different media which includes block printing as well as designing.

I was asked to address the students in the auditorium where a series of questions related to my work in fashion and textiles were put to me. I took this opportunity to convey my views on the importance and use of natural dyes in the fashion industry. The talk which lasted about an hour was followed by a tour of the textile studios where the students working on work placement projects with established block printing companies of Jaipur such as Rangotri, Rashid and Ojjas were eager to show me their work in progress. I was asked then to give brief individual crits to each and everyone of the students. 

During this brief exchange of ideas, I felt reassured that the future of textiles lies widely on the revival of traditional methods such as block printing using natural dyes. This application is widely embraced in India and hopefully one day in the near future will also have a strong hold in the West.

This wonderful workshop as its name suggests involves a primitive and traditional method of block printing with the most fascinating results. It took place at OJJAS printing premises in the North West of Jaipur itself and was supervised by experts in the field which included Dhananjai Singh co-0wner of this growing business.

The mud paste used (also known as Dahbu) consists of five different components one of which is lime stone. Calico was used to experiment with and old wooden blocks were carefully selected for sharpness and clear definition.

After the first layer was block printed with Dahbu the whole fabric was then sprinkled with sawdust to absorb the excess moisture then each piece was left to dry in the sunshine before dyeing it in the indigo vat. Some fabrics were printed over when dry and redyed in pomegranate and myrobalan using Khasis otherwise known as ferrous sulphate as a mordant. All of these were in the powder form with the exception of pomegranate. 

On the last day of the workshop an exhibition of fabrics and garments printed and dyed was held on the lawns of The Diggi Palace hotel and was attended by OJJA’s representatives as well as other distinguished guests from the block printing industry in Jaipur. I displayed several pieces in calico, cotton poplin, silk habotai and silk crepe de chine. The last two lenghts of silk were made into funky ties.

I supplied Anne de la Sayette and Dr. Dominique Cardon who are the organizers of the symposium with several ideas for the logo and although the deadline was brought forward by a total of two weeks, the unanimous decision to choose the active logo for the website was reached. If you are interested please do not hesitate to log onto www.isend2011.com to view it.  Credits for this can be seen by clicking on the terms and conditions section at the bottom of the webpage.

As the designer herself explained ” It was a privilege to be able to design the innaguartion dress for the Fisrt Lady” although this would not be the first time that Michelle Obama favours Isabel Toledo’s designs.

The fabric was manufactured by Forster Rohner a swiss company specialising in fashion fabrics for both Pret-a-Porter and Couture. They have been selling fabrics to Isabel Toledo for the last 15 years. The fabric used for the dress is a cleverly machine engineered Irish lace inspired design using tulle as a backing fabric which gives a metallic feel and look to it in the most beautiful shade of mustard yellow or lemon grass as it has been described in the media.

Meeting Isabel and her illustrator husband Ruben Toledo was a refreshing experience.

 

The Mary Baskett collection currently on exhibit until April 11, 2010 is comprised of pieces from her own personal collection/wardrove which she began collecting during the late 1980s whilst being the curator of prints at the Cincinnati Museum in the late 1960s. Japanese designers include Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake and Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons for whom I have had the priviledge to design printed textiles in the 1980s.

The Innovation of Nuno exhibition displays an amazing range of fabrics from the BORO BORO, FUWA FUWA, SHIMI JIMI, KIRA KIRA, SUKE SUKE and SAWA SAWA collections some of which I am familiar with.

I continue to use the museum’s library for my personal research and studies on natural dyes.

However, Michelle Wippingler herself was kind enough to get back to me and suggest that I do the same workshop in her studios in Seattle, this is something I intend to pursue in 2010.

www.isend2011.com

Bill Moggridge spoke of how Technology, business and people are so important in our society and the role they play in respect of one another. He also showed sketches of his laptop invention which he designed in 1980 and how it revolutionised our technology. He emphasised on how health and well being must be considered to achieve global sustainability as well as sustainable products. He also spoke of a milk carton which he came across during one of his trips to Denmark made out of Ecolen, later found to have chalk and plastic binding agents.

Amory Lovings spoke about how by using environmentally friendly materials money can be saved and used Eco buildings as an example, he also expressed his concern on the lack of official assessments despite the success rate achieved when applied to housing, cars, light trucks, heavy trucks, ships and airplanes.

It was concluded that as responsible human beings we ought to think more of the implications that may be created by using  certain materials which can be harmful to the environment. This is what I would call common sense!

 

Since arriving in the US in May 2009, I have been trying to find ways in which to do my research regarding Natural Dyes/Extracts/Natural Colorants and Pigments. My findings so far have been very limited and the only basic evidence I have come across here in Washington, DC in particular has been at “The Textile Museum”. As a result, I have decided to try my luck in New York after following the advice of Jenny Balfour-Paul who is a well known academic in the subject of Indigo and the author of books on the subject. ”The Yarn Tree Studios” subsequently proved to be a wise choice to do my first workshop under the instruction and strict supervision of Linda Labelle where we dyed using both cellulose and protein yarns and dyes such as Eucalyptus, Myrobalan, Pomegranate, Cochineal, Madder root, Cutch Logwood and Indigo . The workshop was an intense and enjoyable experience which lasted three days and Linda was always keen to answer any questions no matter how simple or complicated these might be. Being a lover of colour and not particularly afraid of getting my hands dirty, I proceeded to listen and participate in this great workshop as I owe it to myself to continue being a Bon Vivant of Natural Dyes, I am sure Linda would agree!

 

Attended a three day workshop using natural dye extracts at “The Yarn Tree Arts Studio” instructed by Linda Labelle, the author of ” The yarn lover’s guide to Hand Dyeing”.  Brooklyn, NY.  July 17th/18th and 19th 2009.