Natural dyed Eri silk with Pashmina and plant based fibres in a quilt-patterned shawl

Turmeric, Myrobalan, tea, walnut and shades of natural dyed greens in handspun, handwoven Eri silk.

Pashmina, reared in Ladakh, hand spun, hand woven in Kashmir.

The other side is warm, hand-spun, woven Pashmina of a non-dyed pure form to add warmth to the quilt pattern patchwork. I brought out its chemistry with panels of tea-dyed hand-spun hand-woven eri silk. The subtlety of Pashmina and tea-dyed Eri silk sing me a subtle, graceful song.

I cannot stress enough the perfect marriage of Intuition and Creative-decision-making while choosing each tiny patch with another. One is Prakriti’s, nature’s natural direction towards subconsciously picking the next. And one is Ritika’s, my deliberate decision of why one shape should go after another and why one block of this colour should go next to the other block. Hence the name, Prak-riti-ka!

Both sensibilities are integral to a patchwork, especially of a quilt form. At all points, the geometry should assimilate back to the rectangle of a shawl form. And many permutations and combinations are revealed before the chosen one is picked up.

When you look closer into each panel and box of this shawl, a new texture will be revealed to you every day. Those who have received the gift of bliss from nature will undoubtedly feel the energy this shawl carries!

Pashmina made by Muneer Shaikh’s family in Srinagar

Gurmail, the tailor

Narmohan Dada, the master Eri silk pioneer

Mumma, Madhu, technical supervision of stitching 

Midtoan.com, the photographer

Designed by Ritika