The wizardry of Textile designer – Creates Van Gogh style impressionistic effect on cloth
One of the most stunning patterns created by Vadodara-based textile designer Medha Bhatt with thousands of bits of textile discards exhibits the scenes of nature and the ecosystem.
Creating picturesque works of art from fabric discards that she buys in sacks from tailoring shops in Vadodara, her works reflect the stories of clients as they are recited to her for a particular assignment. Hence the designs resonate closely with the Clients personal experiences.
One of such signature designs is called six trees, six cities. representing each city, the trees narrate the story of a widely-traveled couple who lived in the cities. The mural-like artwork on cloth possesses Van Gogh effect on cloth as desired by the couple. It was a gift to a couple celebrating their golden anniversary.
In order to live up to the expectations of clients, she usually drafts a questionnaire to understand her clients and their interests better. When she found that the couple had lived in six cities, she decided to concentrate on the trees that symbolize the cities, each of which has a special place in the couple’s lives.
Currently, She has taken up is working on a piece that tells the story of Bhavnagar in Kutch, where she hails from. According to her storytelling through designs has always been her prime interest. She ompares the running stitch, perhaps the most basic of stitches, to a pencil as she finds it the most versatile of stitches. encouraged the women at the Centre to illustrate these stories through scrap.
The idea of creating natural patterns from textile waste dawned on her when she first encountered bags of fabric discards dumped at waysides in 2004-2005 while working with the Zero Waste Centre in Kovalam, Thiruvananthapuram, which was run by environmental NGO Thanal.
The expertise of Medha lies in scenes of nature and the ecosystem such as the Birds perch on trees, dragonflies skitter on ponds, squirrels feed on berries, flowers peep in from the canopy; every work of hers comes alive with plants and animals.
