Eri silk woven on a back strap loom and stitched using traditional joineries

While I am working with the natural dyes, I feel they have a way of introducing their natural alchemy to me. They turn my life into a science workshop where chemistry need not be studied as a subject but by way of bringing out natural colours. The science of natural chemistry is revealed to me by trial and error. I am a student of Science till the end if I do natural dyeing.

The primary shades that are created in this shawl are:

Indigo | derived from Indigofera Tinctoria: To get the adequate mix of Indigo dye, the dye vat goes through many days of fermentation using the pounded leaves of the plant. Once the dye is ready, the fabric is dipped in the vat. Depending upon the number of dips, the shades of Indigo can vary from lightest to deepest.

Myrobalan | Harad/Haritaki/Harda/Chebulic Myrobalan: To achieve deep charcoal shades, the wonder Myrobalan tree fruit is used. This resource is available abundantly in Assam, however, the tricky part of this dye is purely in its tannin relationship with the right acidity to achieve desirable colour-fast shades. When combined with Indigo, this yields beautiful shades of charcoal-blue.

Sappanwood or Brazil wood: To achieve a diverse range from reds to pinks and magentas, this small flowering plant wood is a wonder dye source. We endeavour to only source that wood which has already fallen. And though the colour is rich and easily achieved, it is one of the least readily available dyes in our unit owing to our wish to learn to nurture nature-human balance.

Misora has gone through no machine contact and is 100% handmade. It 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.

Misora’s central panels are handstitched using three diverse traditional joineries, a typical feature of back strap loom textiles used to extend the width.

Misora 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