My passion for all things natural led me to take this up as part of a project at NID. It was fun foraging for leaves, grasses and the whole plant itself sometimes. My work studio had suddenly shifted to the gardens and backyard of my campus – where all the banana plants, bamboo trees and more are grown. All natural materials came with their own set of advantages and limitations – it was fun working around these to create simple and workable surfaces.
The aim was to use materials that were sustainable - natural and renewable. Thus, I looked towards various natural plant material - leaves, stems, fibers, twigs, ropes, yarns, threads, and so on. Mostly all the material I used was in linear form and had to be knotted or woven or stitched to form a planar surface. Since natural materials were used, the texture generated bysome of the surfaces was great. It offered a good amount of tactility which the client has always preferred. Fusing different natural materials together again brought a new dimension to the explorations.
Banana is one of the most important food crops grown in India. After harvest of the fruit, about 60-80 tonnes per hectare of waste biomass (stem, leaves, suckers) is generated. Presently, this biomass is discarded as waste - dumped on roadside or burnt in situ.The banana stem which is now being treated as waste can be put to good use. I am finding different ways of utilizing it other than already existing methods of fibre extraction for paper, yarn and textiles. The idea is to generate new surfaces out of this waste that can be used as a material to make further products.
A brief visual documentation of the process of extracting strips of banana fibre from banana plant
Strips of banana fibrous tissue I harvested as part of finding alternate uses for the plant stem
which is currently used to extract fibre.
Surfaces made out of stitching patches of dried banana leaves.
They have been coated so that they do not disintegrate further.
Harvested banana stem slices woven with a cotton warp
Wheat stalks (gehu) woven with a cotton warp
Paper made from cotton pulp and dried leaves
Bamboo slices sandwiched between voile
Bamboo slices and jute surface
Jute with tucks
Jute interlaced with bhindi fibre
Jute interlaced with thick grass rope
Jute interlaced with water hyacinth
