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20 Nov Book Victoria & Albert Pattern: Spitalfields Silks

Posted at 19:57h in DESIGN, History, Technique by Nidhi Garg 0 Comments

Image Courtesy Victoria and Alber Musuem London[/caption]I will start teaching my first course on 'Collaborative Design with Artisans' as an Adjunct Professor at FIT from the coming Saturday. This new opportunity encouraged me to read about handmade textiles from a global perspective. I read some exciting books from the V&A Museum's Textile and Fashion collections. It is a very enriching experience to learn from other cultures. This reading and research have helped us enhance our design approach and library at Marasim. As I am hopeful, it will also help further the knowledge of my soon to be students.

10 Nov Jim Thompson an American Businessman Who Revitalized the Thai Silk Industry

Posted at 20:28h in Artisan, DESIGN, History, Technique by Mira Gupta 0 Comments

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[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern" css=".vc_custom_1605059524618{padding-right: 15px !important;}" z_index=""][vc_column css=".vc_custom_1605055623830{padding-right: 15px !important;}" offset="vc_col-xs-12"][vc_column_text]Jim Thompson: Hours to kill at an airport when you're waiting for a flight is usually a time filled with tedium. But not when you're at Bangkok airport. Reason? Several Jim Thompson boutiques are scattered over the shopping concourse, leading to hours of pleasurable browsing and shopping.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_single_image image="3188" img_size="full" add_caption="yes" qode_css_animation=""][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]

Jim Thompson was not born a designer. He studied architecture at Princeton and eventually enlisted in the Delaware National Guard in 1940, leading to a posting in Thailand with the ending of World War 2. While he was in Thailand, he was very taken with the country’s lifestyle and culture and chose to settle there.

05 Nov Micro Mosaic a Popular Art from the 19th Century

Posted at 01:02h in Artisan, Culture, History, Metal Work, Technique by Mira Gupta 0 Comments

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[caption id="attachment_3172" align="alignleft" width="250"]

Byzantine mosaic[/caption]

There is something about the miniature, but perfect and complete that gets me every time. And I know I'm not the only one. Is it an adult fascination with dollhouses? Or the desire to control a tiny universe? I don't know. But Micromosaics have always fascinated me.

MUGHAL & DUTCH: A CULTURAL BRIDGING OF 2 GREAT ARTISTIC TRADITIONS

THE MUGHAL EMPERORS LOVE FOR BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS AND FLORAL DESIGNS

Mosaics have been around from the third century BC, particularly in Ancient Rome, composed of glass and terracotta. However, they came into their own in the Byzantine era, where they adorned the churches. This tradition was continued during the Renaissance, as in the ceiling of St Peter's Basilica by Michaelangelo.

23 Oct Hand Blockprinting Fame, Colors, and Floral Designs of Sanganer

Posted at 17:49h in Artisan, Culture, DESIGN, History, Technique by Nidhi Garg 0 Comments

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How did this small town come to be known as the best in the history of Hand Blockprinting?

It was usual for the Rajasthan medieval elites to have musicians, artists, and craftsmen associated with their family. The artists were attached to their patron’s family. They would create a whole gamut of objects and arts in-house for family-like jewelry, clothes, music, bangles or prints, etc. Sanganer became a land of great artists and patronizing families. Whenever the king or the ruler needed something particular, word of mouth would search for unique skillsets. The best artisans would be found and sent. The selected printers and dyers would prepare a new design or a new shade of color for their king. And that’s how the skills of the artisans of Sanganer became known and sought by higher nobility.This type of patronage was not just a way for economic sustenance for artisans, but also a peek into the outside world, offering the artisans a channel for aesthetic inputs. [/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]

Sanganer Hand Blockprinting: Like every other textile lover, I visited Jaipur searching for exquisite ‘vintage’ textiles, decorated with hand block printed florals in gorgeous shades of aged reds, greens, and indigo from the era of nobility and generous patronage in the history of Jaipur. I ended up traveling 13 km away from the central city to get to this self-contained city of Sanganer packed with old structures and temples of great details and architecture. It is a town known for its unique ‘sanganeri’ hand block printing technique. It was revelatory to stumble onto Sanganer’s various sister crafts like handmade papermaking, gold and silver foil making, and cotton weaving. The small town has its artisanal ecology.

18 Oct Jacobean Embroidery a Style Based on the Folklore of England

Posted at 01:49h in DESIGN, History, Technique by Mira Gupta 0 Comments

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Jacobean Embroidery a Style Based on the Folklore of England

A floor covered in rush in a medieval home[/caption]Jacobean Embroidery : We live in our current times in houses or apartments, which are fully furnished, heated in winter, and adorned extensively with textiles for aesthetic reasons and utility. But there was a time in England and the rest of the world that houses were draughty, furniture scarce, and cloth was restricted to wool, linen, and silk. There were rushes on the floor, which dogs and often people would relieve themselves in, making interiors malodorous. People often shifted from one house to another, an itinerant lifestyle because homes became quickly unhygienic. [/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]In the 16th and 17th centuries, an awareness began to grow about beauty and comfort, both in interiors and dress. This age coincided with a time in England when huge homes were being built, abbeys were turned into residences, and lasting peace meant that they could give attention to aesthetic

12 Oct Paisley A Genuinely Global Motif in the Design World

Posted at 18:39h in Culture, DESIGN, History by Nidhi Garg 3 Comments

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Paisley is a genuinely global motif that survived many years, passing through various cultures, evolving into many shapes, names, and colors. The credit for this goes to the endless love of this motif from the tastemakers worldwide. This article traces the origin, movement, evolution, and beauty of this antique motif, which is still a design identity of fashion and home companies from ‘Etro’ in Italy to ‘Kashmir Loom’ in India.

THE MUGHAL RULERS LOVE FOR BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS AND FLORAL DESIGNS

09 Oct The Mughal Emperors Love for Beautiful Flowers and Floral Designs

Posted at 16:31h in Culture, DESIGN, History by Mira Gupta 0 Comments

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[caption id="attachment_2995" align="alignleft" width="398"]

Bābur supervising the laying out of his Charbagh The Garden of Fidelity. Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
India - ca.1590
Artists: Bishndas and Nanha From the V&A[/caption]

Mughal Floral Designs - South Asian art has always been full of floral images, but this reached its zenith in the Mughal empire. During the 330 years that the dynasty ruled, most magnificent art, architecture, and craft that the world has seen were produced, and much imagery used was from flora, particularly in the reigns of Jahāngīr and Shah Jahan. However, Bābur, Humayun, and Akbar are all recorded as profoundly interested in gardens and flowers. One of Babur's first actions in India was to make a garden, the Charbagh.

The popularity of floral motifs in Mughal art was because traditionally, living creatures and humans were not supposed to be depicted in Islamic art. Therefore, the plant kingdom provided subjects that were non-controversial and capable of stylization.

01 Oct Toile de Jouy, the Fabric Symbolic of French Savoir-faire

Posted at 11:35h in Artisan, Culture, DESIGN, History, Technique by Nidhi Garg 0 Comments

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[caption id="attachment_2870" align="alignleft" width="364"]

In 1785 Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf invented the first machine for printing wallpaper, later printing on cotton fabric at his factory in Jouy-en-Josas, hence the prints were known as Toile de Jouy[/caption]

The term 'Toile de Jouy' (meaning, "cloth from Jouy") refers to the printed cotton produced by the Oberkampf textile manufactory at Jouy en Josas in Normandy from 1760 to 1843. It is most often associated with a Rococo pattern of Shepherds and shepherdesses encircled with floral garlands, usually in blue or pink, on a white background. The term is generic and encompasses a wide range of designs from Neoclassical to more generalized floral patterns.

25 Sep Handwoven Diaphanous Muslin, The Story of the World’s Finest Fabric

Posted at 14:17h in Culture, History, Sustainability, Technique, Technology by Mira Gupta 0 Comments

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[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern" css=".vc_custom_1601061701764{padding-right: 15px !important;}" z_index=""][vc_column css=".vc_custom_1601056653257{padding-right: 15px !important;}" offset="vc_col-xs-12"][vc_column_text]Muslin- The word ‘Muslin’ is believed to derive from Marco Polo’s description of the cotton trade in Mosul, Iraq. Another view is that of fashion historian Susan Greene, who wrote that the name arose in the 18th century from mousse, the French word for “foam.” The word is most likely derived from the port of Machilipatnam, called Masulipatnam earlier, from where muslin was exported to South Asia, the Roman Empire, Ethiopia, and Egypt, where it was famously used to wrap mummies. It was often traded for ivory and rhinoceros horn by Greek and Arab merchants.

24 Sep A Humble Origin & Fascinating Stories of Fashionable Madras Checks

Posted at 00:46h in Artisan, Culture, History, Sustainability, Technique by Nidhi Garg 0 Comments

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The Origin of Madras Checks Fabric

Around the 12th century, Madras Checks was a piece of handloom clothing for India's peasant class in the village called Madraspatnam (Madras now Chennai). The local weavers would extract the soft fibers from the "tip-skin" of native trees to weave 36" wide square handkerchiefs, which were then block printed with bright colored check patterns. They were worn as a garment similar to a sarong wrapped around the waist and extending to the ankles, called a lungi.

20 Nov Book Victoria & Albert Pattern: Spitalfields Silks

10 Nov Jim Thompson an American Businessman Who Revitalized the Thai Silk Industry

05 Nov Micro Mosaic a Popular Art from the 19th Century

23 Oct Hand Blockprinting Fame, Colors, and Floral Designs of Sanganer

How did this small town come to be known as the best in the history of Hand Blockprinting?

18 Oct Jacobean Embroidery a Style Based on the Folklore of England

12 Oct Paisley A Genuinely Global Motif in the Design World

09 Oct The Mughal Emperors Love for Beautiful Flowers and Floral Designs

01 Oct Toile de Jouy, the Fabric Symbolic of French Savoir-faire

25 Sep Handwoven Diaphanous Muslin, The Story of the World’s Finest Fabric

24 Sep A Humble Origin & Fascinating Stories of Fashionable Madras Checks

The Origin of Madras Checks Fabric

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