Conceptualizing a theme- the motive was to do something new with crafts. Since this was part of the term project in which I had to develop a product using the craft techniques I had learnt in the semester which included weaving, crochet, papier mache, felt, leather products and punch needle embroidery; I chose to work with leather and weaving- thereby bringing together and unconventional combination in an unconventional setting for traditional crafts as taught at my institute.
These are some of the many digitally developed weaves in ProWeave software- that helped me in better visualization of the patterns and color play.
Working with traditional weaving of Kangra valley in Himachal Pradesh- I had to make sure that the character of the craft also remains while I add my interventions to it, so the colors were selected accordingly and the patterns were suitably modified to be adapted onto a 4 shaft loom as is traditionally used in the valley. The leather was sourced from Jaipur, and was cruelty-free leather extracted from naturally dead cattle.
