Eri silk + back strap loom + hand stitched +patchwork + sashiko-Boro stitches

I obey the creative process, the technical nuances, the structural limitations and the desires of the heart.

To create Obey, seven major milestones were noted.

1. First, two shades of Indigo-dyed Eri silk yarn were carried from Kamrup district, Assam, to the remote regions of Nagaland to be woven on the backstrap loom. The intention was to achieve the same texture that only a backstrap loom can create, but remove from it the stiff sturdiness and replace it with gentle malleability.
2. In Nagaland, two separate eri panels were then woven in lighter and darker tones of Indigo that were then joined together by Param using joinery stitching embroidery in Punjab. My mother trained her into learning, and then honing this joinery method while accentuating the beauty of the merging of these two textiles.
3. Simultaneously, a separate square was being created over weeks, or perhaps months. This was the piece Param began learning Sashiko like Kantha stitches on. This is her practice textile. The stitches vary revealing the growth in her learning, line after line, stitch after stitch. Sometimes the stitches are closely knit and sometimes they are sparse. When they come together, they tell a story. This square was a perfect Chōwa, a design introduction to balance the horizontal indigo panels. This square, though indigo dyed has become immersed in the white of the Sashiko stitches.
4. Now, the final stroke of balancing the intended length of the shawl, while creating the right heft for a perfect gravity of the shawl. For that, we created double-sided panels with a backstrap loom woven undyed Eri silk on one side. And added the final stroke of madness this whole geometry needed, by carefully placing the myrobalan and indigo-dyed eri silk strip patchwork as the complementary panels to the white.
5. To bring Obey into a collective energy, a loop edging embroidery was crafted to bind the whole shawl. This collectivises the separateness.
6. Obey was then given eri silk tassels on all four gentle corners. The four corners represent the four directions. The central square represents the core from where the directions are observed.
7. Obey is worn by Thien. Thien makes me see beyond the eyes and the tangible. Thien obeys the process life reveals, with grace and humility.

Obey is a marvel of intentional non-injury rearing of silkworms, hand spinning of woolly Eri silk yarn, natural dyeing, indigenous back strap loom weaving, hand stitching, joineries and edging skills. We involved old grandmothers and young teenagers for this three-year project and made an interesting payment structure that involved multiple people working on a single shawl and having the freedom to earn at various loosely structured steps. That set some motivation in the group. It has been a slow project but a meaningful one because of the involvement of some key individuals who are motivated to work with their community and bring growth to their people.

Obey is a one-of-a-kind textile designed to highlight a unique coming together of various techniques and creativity of handcraft. This design will not be recreated.