Indigo is among the oldest dyes to be used for textile dyeing and India is believed to be the oldest center of indigo dyeing.

The following is a small collection of print designs developed for a menswear brand as a part of their Autumn Winter' 16 Ready to Wear range. All prints were printed on fine base, dyed in indigo and printed using discharge effect technique or reactive dyes.

Mera Bharatiya Aadambar translates to- "My Indian Kitsch". It is a celebration of all things that define India.

I've always been inspired by everything I see around me, especially anything colorful. Growing up in one of the most colorful and happening states of India- Gujarat, I'm naturally drawn towards anything traditional and filled with saturated hues.  

Overwhelmed by the fine details in various walks of life around me, one day I sat across my windowsill with all my sketch-pens, paints, art papers and my the little trinkets from my archive. I started doodling first with my colored pens. Words, objects, festive decorations, anything and everything that came to my mind converted into line drawings on the paper. Then I looked around for stuff that would help me accentuate these details I was trying to capture. Slowly my line drawings were filled with blingy sequins, cellophane paper and threads too. The outcome was colorful and truly Indian. 

'My Indian Kitsch' is a pictorial representation of traditional rituals, local bazaars and markets, street walls, neighborhood people, Indian greetings and everyday objects.

A loud collage of fun and incongruous elements that represent real India.. 

This artwork is with all its empty bubbles can be used to fill the empty wall in your room and throw in some energy. The empty bubbles can be used to put up some picture frames.

After finishing up this one, I moved to another collage. This one is a juxtaposition of colorful cubes each filled with a symbol of Indian culture. Another combination of mixed media - poster colors, sketch-pens, art paper, sparkle, sequins and mirrors.

I wasn't done as yet, one more idea came to my mind. I definitely had more indian-ess left in me .. 

Working on a similar idea- to capture the true essence of India, this one too can go up on your wall and can be personalized with your picture frames.

 

I totally fell in love with this one.. So much so that I even got it printed for my coffee mug. 

I thoroughly enjoyed worked on - 'My Indian Kitsch'. This is by far one of my very favorite piece of work!

#4

BECAUSE I LOVE TO PHOTOSHOP !!

Sometimes, when I open Photoshop on my system I get the same feeling as I do when I enter my favorite designer's showroom on the onset of a new season. Amazed by the enormous patterns on display and awed by the possibilities of design, I feel quite the same way when I start designing something new. I don't think we humans can ever run out of ideas be it designing the next fall collection or the layout of a new mobile application. Wow. I think that rhymes! Anyway, spring is all over the place. In fact, summer has almost settled in.. One quiet afternoon, I was surfing the internet for some gift ideas when I accidentally came across some beautiful photography work. I couldn't help but add my imagination to it via photo-shop!

The soft monochromes blend in with the snow white rabbit and at the same time accentuate its cuteness too.

x x x xx  xxx xxxx xxxx xxxx  xxxxxxxxx    a stitch from mexico xxxxxxxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxx xx x x x

My undying love for authentic traditional fabrics always makes me hunt for hidden textiles treasures from all over the world. In fact this got me thinking, all that we see in the market today- brands/ designers/ boutiques, they all draw the inspiration for their collection from one or the other ancient textile printing or weaving techniques. The market is filled with adaptations of block print, ikat, tie-dye and embroidery from various origins. Commercialization has acted as a catalyst in spreading arts and craft from one corner of the world to another. This is the very reason that today, hand-block prints from Gujarat, Rajasthan and intricately handwoven shawls from Kashmir have received appreciation globally. It has also helped artisans earn a livelihood by practicing their ancestral profession.

I got the idea for "a stitch from mexico" when I came across this beautiful tunic on of the online shopping web portals. The description mentioned 'traditional mexican embroidery dress'- and this is what caught my attention. Although I didn't end up buying the dress but I ended up researching all about Mexican textiles and that's how I coined the title of this blog-post. 

Interesting thing to know is that these textiles date back to 1400BC !! 

Floral patterns in cross stitch and satin stitch are most common.

The particular embroidery that I chose to explore is from Hidalgo, state of Mexico.

  FLUORESCENCE - neon love                                                   

As we call it the Neon Love- a trend that has recently trickled up in the current fashion scene. The use of fluorescent greens, fuchsia pink and tangerines as accents or even as color block patterns is seen everywhere from bags and shoes to shirts and trousers. I absolutely love this neon season. But I felt that this fluorescence was missing from one major aspect of a woman's wardrobe. I think this color theme will beautifully translate into a collection of casual shirts for women. So, here I have expressed my love for neon below through a small range of checks and stripes for women.

DO YOU KNOW WHY NEON COLORS ARE CALLED SO ??

Let's go back to high school chemistry- Group 18 Noble Gases.

I'm sure you remember studying the Periodic Table in high school, the one with the Latin names and Atomic Numbers of all chemical elements divided into various groups? Do you remember a particular GROUP 18 of THE PERIODIC TABLE? I'm sure just like me even you must have devised a method to mug up all the names. But little do we remember after writing our exams.

Well I'm talking about the group of Noble Gases- Helium, Xenon, Argon, Krypton and NEON GAS!

These gases are known by their unique characteristics which were observed by passing these gases through a series of chemical experiments. While Krypton exhibits a whitish glow in a high electric field, neon displays a brilliant reddish orange in a vacuum discharge tube- the so called neon light. And this why all the colors that fall in the parity of this brilliant fluorescent scarlet are popularly called Neon Colors. 

P-R-I-N-T D-E-S-I-G-N

MOLA PARADIGM

Molas are a form of reverse applique technique that is an inherent part of the part of the traditional costumes worn by the Kuna women. These are handcrafted by sewing several layers of cloth in various colors and the design comes alive by cutting away parts of each layer.

I took up this theme as inspiration to create a coordinated collection for a print design module during my third semester in college. You can see the more of the collection as you scroll down. 

I particularly admire the Kuna women for their sense of judgement of color combinations in the right proportions.