Contemporary Indian Textiles + Homewares
Two women, one Australian the other based in Tucson working South India, produce exceptional contemporary and practical textiles that utilize and respect the hand created techniques and the morés of traditional lifestyles.
We adore their superb collections that are available online.
Hailing from an illustriously creative line of siblings (“Little” Nell and blockprint artist Cressida), Sally Campbell enjoyed a significant career as a set and costume designer before Home Textiles was launched in November 2005. Sydney homewares guru Melissa Penfold called Sally's first collection museum worthy.
Sally designs a diverse range of home textiles, which have been profiled in the Sydney Morning Herald and Vogue Living. She specialises in reversible quilts, hand-woven in remote villages of West Bengal. Each stage of production from spinning, fabric dyeing, weaving, and stitching is done by hand, so every finished item is unique. Sally's aim is to combine her sense of contemporary design with traditional craft skills.
Like other Western designers working at grass roots level in India, Sally helps provide sustainable income to craftspeople whose livelihood has been endangered by industrialization.
Her website offers a superb range on line and Sally also exhibits new collections in galleries around Australia.
After a career as fashion editor and stylist, Mary Mulcahy developed an interest in Indian textiles, because she just wanted fabrics that were as she envisioned them- fresh and simple, authentically Indian yet pleasing to the Western eye.
What were once complex traditional designs with multiple colors, she transformed by extracting and simplifying particular motifs, reducing them to a single color, and elegantly spacing them on a creamy white background. The fabric was so wonderful that Les Indiennes came into being and utilizes an ancient and complex process known as kalamkari.
“We are particularly proud of the fact that Les Indiennes never set out to industrialize or to change the way things are done in India. The production of our fabric does not cause pollution nor does it disrupt the traditional lifestyle of the village where it is made. Les Indiennes provides fair trade employment for over 50 families, raising the standard of living for the entire community, and all the while leaving no environmental or social footprint.”
For a vibrant blog on textiles Go To Fibercopia>