Sustainable Art

The Hindu : Arts / Crafts : A stitch in time: Medha Bhatt Ganguly, an alumna of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, is not enthused by the bright lights of the fashion world or the “lucrative jobs” at export houses that most of her classmates made a beeline for. Instead, she derives her inspiration from village artisans who have been practising their trade for years.

She travelled across her native Rann of Kutch to research the traditional crafts of its Rajput communities for her diploma project and was so inspired by the sustainability of this handicraft technique that she chose to specialise in traditional patchwork appliqué art made out of textile scraps! Today, through her brand ‘the forest floor,' Medha gives a fresh lease of life to waste, which would have otherwise ended up in landfills, and more importantly, uses her “interest in connecting with people” to empower rural women.

“My travels in the region really opened up a new world. There, inside dark huts, amid drab landscapes, were the most beautiful appliquéd trees on all kinds of household linen. The artisans of the Kutch taught me the value of re-using old fabrics to create useable furnishings, and that too with the barest of resources. For instance, to make stencils they often cut out beedi wrappers or whatever is available at hand, into desired shapes. This is environmentally-friendly handicraft at its best,” says Medha, who mostly uses old dupattas, saris, bagfuls of leftover material from tailors, and so on sourced from her family and friends to stitch her designs.