Kantha: Sustainable Textiles and Mindful Making

In Kantha: Sustainable Textiles and Mindful Making, Ekta Kaul presents the story of the Bengali embroidery form known as kantha not simply as craft but as a material archive of memory, reuse and slow-making. The book opens with the layered cloths of Bengal — old saris and dhotis repurposed into quilt-like pieces embroidered in running-stitch — and moves through technique, taxonomy, construction, reinterpretation and application in contemporary work. Kaul invites the reader to look closely: to see the tiny floats of thread, the thoughtful repeats of motif, the way ragged fabric becomes clean line, and the way women makers turned the detritus of daily life into beautiful, meaningful textiles.

The book is both a celebration and an invitation: it acknowledges kantha’s origins in reuse and survival, its roots in women’s everyday making, and then positions it as a source of inspiration for makers today who seek sustainability, authenticity and mindful engagement. The structure of the volume — beginning with tradition, moving through technique, then onto re-imagining and making your own — mirrors that journey of slow-craft. What resonates for the Selvedge reader is this fusion of history, materiality and active making: the book doesn’t just show beautiful cloth, it shows how cloth is made, worn, repurposed, and remade.

About the Author
Ekta Kaul is a London-based textile artist of Indian origin whose practice focuses on narrative stitch, map-like textiles and material culture. Educated in India and the UK, she teaches workshops internationally and exhibits her work in major institutions.

Publication date: 2024
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Pages: 192
ISBN: 9781789940435