A THOUSAND PIECES AND COUNTING

Images courtesy of Vineeta Jadhavrao

The author of this week's blog posts is Brinda Gill, a post-graduate in economics, based in Pune, India. Gill enjoys discovering the wealth of a nation through its heritage of textiles, culture, arts, architecture and natural life, and writing on these subjects. With India being bequeathed with a treasured heritage of textiles, spanning different techniques and variations within each technique, she finds the learning never stops. She believes India’s textile artisans - skilled, creative, humble and hardworking - are true heroes as they create wondrous hand-woven, embroidered, resist-dyed, block printed and painted natural fibre textiles that are testimony to the ancient living heritage of India’s fabled fabrics.

“Mosaic art magically meshes thousands of fragments to create artistic works”, says textile designer Vineeta Jadhavrao, Founder, Calyz Textiles, Pune, India.
Inspired by the mosaic art technique worked on stone and ceramics - that spans time and cultures - Vineeta works with women artisans in rural areas near Pune, Maharashtra state, India. They design and handcraft a range of cushion covers, quilts, kitchen textiles, space dividers, wall art and more recently masks surfaced with fabric mosaic patterns.


Images courtesy of Vineeta Jadhavrao

A graduate from NID Ahmedabad, Vineeta worked in the textile industry for a few years before founding her studio as she wished to specialise in exclusive home furnishings of natural-fibre fabrics handcrafted by women artisans.

Finding that mosaic art allows for the mixing, blending, grading and use of an entire spectrum of colours she worked on using bits of cloth to create works. In late 2017, she finalised a signature textile mosaic technique (patent pending), using small fragments of cloth that are adhered and stitched on a cotton fabric base to create patterns and/or compositions.

For creating each product, Vineeta designs the pattern, its colours and placement of the fragments, and then explains the work to the women. The wall art typically features abstract compositions inspired by her love for nature. Cotton, jute and silk fabrics are used for the base; banana fibre cloth (for the backing of wall art for structural and aesthetic reasons); and natural fibre materials for the mosaic and cords. About 30% of the raw material for the mosaic work is recycled from in-house production.


Images courtesy of Vineeta Jadhavrao

While the surface design on the cushion covers, quilts, kitchen textiles and wall art is pure mosaic art, for the space dividers Vineeta also draws on other textile techniques to add texture and interest. Thus, the space divider may feature pleating, layering, cording, wrapping, crochet, and knotless netting in addition to the predominant mosaic work

As the women carefully keep affixing scores of fabric pieces, the collage slowly takes form before their eyes. “It is most fascinating to see how cloth on cloth creates compositions, and how the collage technique can be given new expression”, says Vineeta who enjoys the process, engaging with fabrics and the artisans, and showcasing the work at her studio and at fairs in India and abroad.