A textile artist who creates exceptional designs for interiors

You started off by working with garments. Why did you shift to art pieces for interiors?
I am trained in fine art and I entered the market as an apparel brand. I tricked people into buying my art by buying clothes and saris that I made. I do love saris, it’s like working on a giant canvas. But I didn’t want to be a designer, I wanted to do art pieces. Slowly I started getting commissioned art pieces for homes. It’s been rewarding to build this up organically.

What do you like about working with interiors?
If I am commissioned a piece for someone’s home, then the process is very personal. I look at their space, what they like and don’t. For instance, one of the pieces I did was for someone who has a home in Lutyen’s Delhi. It’s a contemporary home with light tones and I wanted to bring in colour, while they wanted something really quiet. I finally made an artwork created from woodcuts, spread across 30 feet and held together by 16 frames, and it fit in perfectly into their home. 

Your prints are always inspired by nature. Why is that?
I grew up between Delhi and Goa and the flora and fauna of Goa has been a huge inspiration. In monsoon in Goa, nature grows out of every little crack and there’s always something to be inspired from. I always end up doing something with trees or flowers.  

Do you work with a big team at the studio? 
I don’t, it is a typical artist studio. I have two people who do embroidery for me, and one person who helps me with printing. I literally do everything myself, after I do the drawing, I make the screens, I carve the blocks and I do the printing. I am the artist and the karigar.

You have talked about William Morris being a starting point of inspiration for you. Has that changed as you’ve progressed over the years?
I love his aesthetic, the fullness of his work, the feeling of it. And if you think about it, he practically stole his designs from India, most of his influences were Mughal. And though I love his work, I don’t want my work to be inspired by any one person. I try my hardest to be inspired by my own work. I try not to look at Pinterest so that I don’t get influenced.
 

Would you say your work is influenced by Indian tradition?
I work with Indian craft like embroidery and stone inlay and yet I don’t think my work qualifies as Indian. I think art can be beyond cultural connotation, and be about universal truth.

How has the pandemic affected your work?
Work has slowed down and I had to reduce some of my staff. I still have people ordering smaller fabric pieces. But I have taken this time to work on my own art. I am creating a collection of wall pieces. These are not commissioned and a lot of my personal work is from my imagination rather than actual nature.

Since you have just built and designed a home for yourself, can you share your experience?
After I turned 30, I wanted to build a house and there is nothing quite as satisfying. I did not have any architect to help me. I just winged it. I was lucky to have lot of trees in the plot, a banyan tree, a neem tree, and a mango tree, and the house had to be designed around the trees. I’ve left the house almost blank with white walls and plain covers. I guess my house is a break from my work. It’s minimalist.