06 — Portfolio

January — July

Portfolio — Craft, Surface & Circularity

Craft, surface
& circularity

This project was developed within a craft-led design environment in Jaipur, where traditional textile techniques became a site for material investigation, sustainability thinking, and system-based experimentation.

This work approaches craft as a material knowledge system. Traditional techniques are treated as living processes shaped by time, environment, and human intervention rather than fixed outcomes.

Tap to printScroll to begin

01 — Block print × hand embroidery

Exploration

I explored the interaction between block printing and hand embroidery as a layered surface system, observing how these processes coexist and respond to each other. This approach revealed how structural and visual qualities of the textile shift through material layering and human intervention.

White-on-white paisley eyelet embroidery on fine cotton.
Eyelet embroidery with small cut-work flowers and trailing stems.
Fine white thread embroidery of leafy stems on a pale ground.
Close-up of raised white floral embroidery with eyelets.
Delicate leaf and sprig embroidery on translucent fabric.
Scattered embroidered blossoms on a soft white ground.
A band of small embroidered florets on off-white cotton.
A grey and black spray-and-block-printed surface with a crackled texture.
Blue fabric with a dense small-scale floral block print.
Faded block-printed motifs broken up by dark ink blotches.
Black paisley block prints over a mottled grey ground.
A grey crackle-resist texture across draped fabric.
Blue dyed fabric with an appliquéd floral trail stitched over it.
Layered grey and white spray textures on cotton.
A scalloped cotton lace border with cut-work motifs.
A length of crocheted cotton lace trim held up to the light.

02 — Circular Design Challenge · material development

Surface

The back of a brown hoodie with an embroidered architectural scene and small red appliqué flowers.
A mirror photo of a block-printed floral vest over a pale blue shirt, in the studio.
Close-up of a clean stand collar in cream fabric.

These were the initial patterns and designs for the CDC garments, featuring various dyeing techniques, including Bagru dyeing, along with adda work and sequins.

This corset was constructed by me and features zari embroidery of bird motifs and stems.

A black corset on a dress form, gathered sheer front panel, embroidered with white zari birds and stems.
The back of the black corset showing zari embroidery of birds on branches.
Close-up of white zari embroidery: a bird perched among leaves.
A panel of re-woven fabric remnants with a rough, irregular surface.
A textured two-piece built from the re-woven material, dotted with small embroidered flowers, carrying a red bag.

One material was developed through a waste-led material exploration, where discarded fabric remnants were stripped and re-woven to create a new textile structure. This process transformed textile waste into a functional surface from which the silhouette emerged, with embroidery and sequins added as responsive secondary layers.

A mirror photo of a pale blue hoodie with a mottled, crackled surface and printed tree motifs.
A long coat in a mottled, earthy surface with patches of bright blue.

Another material, and the hoodie, explore earth-based surface treatments using a mud and clay mixture applied to dyed fabric and sun-dried. The process generated an irregular, tactile texture, demonstrating how natural materials and environmental exposure can alter textile behaviour and introduce material depth without synthetic finishes.

Block print exploration

The fabric underwent sequential surface treatments, beginning with block printing and followed by spray application, allowing me to observe pigment absorption, diffusion, and surface depth across the textile.

Blue fabric with streaked, uneven colour from a mix of Bagru dye and bleach.

Mix of Bagru dye and bleach

A block-printed vest panel with floral prints, a lettered motif, and a stepped border.
A vest panel with a framed block-printed scene sprayed over in grey.
A vest panel printed with dark trees and flowers above a geometric border.
Jacket pattern pieces block-printed in a dense floral repeat, laid on raw fabric.
A finished block-printed jacket on a dress form.
A top joining striped woven fabric to black lace, traced with green stitch lines.
The striped and lace top worn, with its green stitch lines visible.

This experiment focused on understanding material transitions, testing how two distinct fabrics could be integrated into a cohesive surface through controlled construction and finishing techniques.

Two grey garment panels, stonewashed and sprayed through a stencil.
A pale vest with layered black block prints and white flowers along the hem.

Through layered dyeing, stonewashing, and stencil-based spray application, I investigated how repeated interventions transform textile surfaces over time, mimicking processes of wear, erosion, and material ageing.

Unexpected outcome

“Uneven absorption created irreversible surface changes.”

03 — Folklore · Spring Summer ’25 · CDC

Working within multi-actor material systems

  • Folklore
  • Spring Summer ’25
  • Circular Design Challenge

Pull a thread — the system moves with it

Construction workflowsSequencingDesign developmentProcess consistencyMaterial sourcingEmbroiderySurface manipulationDyeingMaterial efficiencyLifecycle awarenessResponsible sourcingRaw material sourcing

Folklore

During this project, I was involved in the design and construction of multiple textile outcomes while closely engaging with the organisation and sequencing of making processes. My role focused on coordinating construction workflows, contributing to selected design developments, and ensuring material and process consistency across different stages of production.

By working from initial concept through to execution, I gained insight into how individual making decisions, such as construction methods, surface treatments, and material choices, interact within a larger system. This experience strengthened my understanding of design as a collective, process-driven framework rather than a series of isolated objects.

Spring Summer ’25

In this project, I designed and constructed a complete material outcome while also engaging with the construction processes of additional pieces. The work involved sourcing appropriate materials and managing technical processes such as embroidery, surface manipulation, and dyeing.

Through close involvement with these stages, I examined how surface interventions and material treatments influence textile behaviour and visual coherence. Coordinating these processes across multiple pieces allowed me to understand consistency not as a stylistic choice, but as the result of controlled material systems and process-driven decision making.

CDCCircular Design Challenge

This project was developed within the Circular Design Challenge, where material efficiency, lifecycle awareness, and responsible sourcing informed every design decision. My involvement focused on constructing material outcomes and engaging with embroidery, surface manipulation, and dyeing processes, alongside assisting in raw material sourcing and construction workflows.

Working within these constraints shifted my understanding of consistency from a visual outcome to a result of controlled material systems and process sequencing. The project reinforced my interest in circular and biodesign principles, highlighting how regenerative thinking and material intelligence can guide design beyond conventional fashion frameworks.

Constraints encountered

  • Material availability limited surface consistency
  • Process time conflicted with production timelines
  • Circular goals challenged aesthetic control

04 — Live industry project · Liva × Pearl Academy, Jaipur

Material-led exploration of Rajasthani textile systems

From craft technique to material system

This project investigates traditional textile practices from Jaipur as material systems rather than fashion outputs. Through Bagru, Dabu, and Dabka techniques, the work explores how natural dyes, earth-based resists, and hand processes respond to environment, time, and human intervention.

This project was developed as a craft-based exploration in Jaipur, where the brief required working with traditional textile techniques such as Bagru printing, Dabu resist, and Dabka embroidery, and translating them into a contemporary outcome. While the initial expectation was to create finished garments, the process gradually shifted my focus toward understanding how materials behave through time, environment, and human intervention.

Working with natural dyes and earth-based resists presented several challenges. Colour outcomes were unpredictable due to changes in sunlight, water quality, drying time, and fabric preparation. Issues such as bleeding lines, cracking resists, limited colour ranges, and long process durations required constant adjustment. Collaborating with artisans highlighted how much of the process depends on embodied knowledge and experience rather than fixed instructions. Dabka embroidery further revealed how labour, time, and human energy become embedded within material surfaces.

These challenges reshaped my approach to design. Instead of controlling outcomes, I learned to respond to material behaviour and limitations, using garments as testing grounds rather than final goals. This experience strengthened my interest in material systems, ecological processes, and biodesign-led thinking.

A printer at a long table in a brick workshop, shelves of carved wooden blocks behind.
SunlightWater qualityDrying timeFabric preparationBleeding linesCracking resistsLimited colour rangesLong process durations

04.1 — Plant-based dye system

Bagru

Bagru printing was explored as a plant-based dye system where fabric preparation, mordanting, and sun-drying played a key role in colour development. I was directly involved in preparing the fabric, mixing natural dyes, and observing how variations in temperature, water, and drying time affected the final surface. Rather than aiming for uniform results, I learned to respond to the natural inconsistencies that emerged through the process.

An artisan laying out fabric along a long printing table.
Cream fabric on the table with a freshly printed geometric border.
A printer pressing a carved block onto cloth, building a black-and-white repeat.
A steel pot heating on a small stove.
Fabric lifted out of a pot of brown natural dye.
Printed fabric stirred in a pot of dye beside a gas cylinder.
Hands working printed fabric in a blue tub of dark dye.
“Colour outcomes could not be standardised.”
Dried plant material for natural dye in a plastic bag.

04.2 — Earth-based resist

Dabu

Dabu printing introduced an earth-based resist process using mud, lime, and natural binders to temporarily block dye absorption. I participated in preparing and applying the resist, controlling drying time, and removing the layers after dyeing. Cracking, peeling, and uneven resist coverage revealed how time, pressure, and environmental conditions shape the final outcome, requiring continuous adaptation during the process.

Hands pressing a mud-resist block onto white cloth.
“Cracking and resist failure shaped final surfaces.”
Sawdust sprinkled from a bowl over the wet mud resist.
Resisted fabric being peeled back from a dark dye bath.
A white cloth soaking in a steel pot of water.
Close-up of dark, dye-soaked cloth with cracked mud still clinging to it.
Three people with a length of indigo cloth laid out to dry in a courtyard.
Fabric with a wavy resisted pattern lifted from a red tub.

04.3 — Metallic thread embroidery

Dabka

Dabka embroidery was explored as a labour-intensive surface intervention. I worked hands-on with metallic threads to understand how repeated hand movements, time investment, and stitching density altered the fabric’s weight, flexibility, and structure. This process highlighted how human energy and craftsmanship become physically embedded within the textile surface.

“Time and fatigue influenced stitch density.”
Three embroiderers working around a frame of purple fabric.
A magenta panel of metallic paisley embroidery with bowls of coiled dabka wire.
Dense gold dabka and mirror work in a geometric border on magenta.
Gold floral dabka embroidery on royal blue.
A long metallic vine embroidered on red silk.
A woman seated at a large embroidery frame as embroiderers work across it.

04.4 — Samples to surfaces

Scaling material behaviour

Scaling exposed stress points where materials resisted control, reinforcing garments as experimental tools rather than design endpoints.

Grey Dabu print with stepped zigzags and dots.
Grey fabric with wavering white stripes.
Indigo and white wavy stripes.
Indigo cloth with columns of resisted diamonds and dots.
An indigo lattice print scattered with small motifs.
A brown and white hexagon border print.
Grey quatrefoil grid print.
Grey nested diamond print.
Indigo stripes with a printed border of small figures.
A fine all-over indigo quatrefoil print.
Grey zigzag print with gold dabka diamonds stitched over it.
Indigo lattice print with gold dabka motifs applied.
Grey chevrons couched with gold dabka thread.

04.5 — Garments as testing grounds

Materials to application

Seven garments on dress forms made from the Dabu and Bagru textiles: draped vests, jackets, flared trousers, a wrap dress and a wrap skirt in indigo, grey, brown and red prints.

Garments were used as testing grounds to observe how developed textiles respond to stress, stitching, and movement at scale. This project shifted my approach from designing visual outcomes to designing through material systems shaped by time, environment, and human interaction. These experiences motivate my interest in Biodesign as a framework for engaging with regenerative materials and living systems.

05 — August – December 2024

Satyam

This project was conducted in collaboration with Satyam, a Rajasthan-based textile practice working with resist-dyeing and natural dye systems. Rather than focusing on brand identity, the project used this context to study Shibori as a material process shaped by tension, compression, dye penetration, and human intervention.

05.1

Print development

This stage explored Shibori through material testing alongside digital studies. Variations in folding, binding, stitching density, and fabric thickness examined how dye responds to physical manipulation.

Digital designs supported pattern and scale testing before material trials, revealing how tension, structure, and stitch placement shape dye diffusion and surface outcomes.

Digital kimono study: swirling concentric waves in grey and blue.
Digital kimono study: white hexagonal shibori cells on indigo.
Digital kimono study: glowing diamond resist marks on deep blue.
Digital kimono study: a pale bound-resist grid with dark crossings.
Digital kimono study: stitched wave bands curving across indigo.
Digital kimono study: fine vertical lines of tiny resist dots on charcoal.
Digital kimono study: bold white rings on indigo.
Digital kimono study: faint blue flowers on near-black indigo.
Digital kimono study: a checkerboard of white resist squares.

05.2 — Stitch resist

Process

Shibori was explored through stitch-resist methods where embroidery acted as a temporary intervention to control dye exposure. I was involved in initiating, observing, and overseeing each stage, gaining insight into how stitch density, thread tension, and fabric compression influence resist behaviour. This exploration focused on surface, texture, and structure rather than garment inspiration, examining how folds, layering, and compression shape dye behaviour and material outcomes through human intervention.

Tap to bind the clothdye can’t reach what is bound
White cloth with orange stitch-resist outlines of stars before dyeing.
Cloth marked with orange stitched diamond outlines.
An orange stitched flower outline on white cloth.
Indigo-dyed cloth still gathered and bound, stitches pulled tight.
A four-petal stitched outline ready to be gathered.
Rows of wavy orange stitch lines across a length of cloth.
Pale cloth pleated and compressed, faint circles showing through.

05.3 — Shibori

Final garments

A kaftan dress with a white V of bound resist fading into deep indigo.
A kaftan dress in an indigo lattice of white bound-resist crosses.
A kaftan dress with stitched white diamonds on indigo.
A kaftan dress scattered with white stitched flowers on indigo.

Garments were used as testing grounds to observe how Shibori-treated textiles respond to scale, stitching, and movement. Rather than final outcomes, they helped evaluate durability, flexibility, and structural behaviour. Uneven dye absorption, softened edges, and gradual tonal transitions emerged through variations in fabric compression, thread tension, and dye saturation. Tightly bound areas resisted colour, while looser sections absorbed dye more freely. Over time, the release of compression further altered the textile, reinforcing Shibori as a time-based system shaped by material resistance and human intervention.

Indigo cloth with white star-burst resist motifs, held up to a window.
Indigo cloth with pale four-petal resist flowers.
Blue diamond shibori hanging in front of a bright window.
Soft blue fabric with white diamond resists.
Light indigo cloth with scattered white flower resists.

06 — Graduation project, as material process

Scribble to Rebel

The project began as an exploration of graffiti as a visual language, but gradually shifted into studying how surfaces, marks, and layers are created through textile processes. Rather than focusing on designing garments, the emphasis moved toward understanding how materials change through printing, resist, quilting, puffing, and embroidery. Repetition, pressure, and hand involvement played a key role in shaping the fabric, allowing patterns and textures to develop over time.

Unpredictability note — each process responded differently to handling, making outcomes non-repeatable and material-led.

A puffed, tie-dyed fabric letter H.
A puffed fabric letter W in pale blue.
A puffed fabric letter T with a striped stem.
A puffed fabric letter M in pink and blue stripes.
A puffed fabric letter Z covered in a red net print.
A puffed fabric letter U with blue waves.
A puffed, tie-dyed fabric letter K.
A puffed fabric letter E in pink stripes.
A puffed fabric letter B in a blue check.
A puffed fabric letter O, tie-dyed in pink and blue.
A smaller puffed letter H in dusty blue.

Puffed and quilted letters · pick one up and throw it

01

Printing & tie-dye

Printing, tie-dye, and embroidery were explored as surface experiments rather than decorative techniques. By changing folds, bindings, and dye saturation, I observed how colour spreads each time differently. The process showed how fabric reacts to physical handling and how outcomes cannot be fully controlled.

Printed and tie-dyed fabric letters spelling words like TIME, STRESS, JAPAN and EXPRIMER.
Cut fabric letters in printed patterns laid out on a table.

02

Puffing & quilting

Puffing and quilting were used to change the structure of the fabric. Adding layers and volume transformed flat textiles into raised, tactile surfaces. This helped me understand how stitch density, padding, and pressure affect weight, flexibility, and surface behaviour.

The back of a black hoodie with puffed letters reading TIME FOR NETFLIX.
The back of a black hoodie with puffed, printed letters.
A black hoodie with oversized puffed letters stacked across the back.
A row of fabric letters in wave, gradient and ogee prints.

Letter positioning

Letterforms were explored as modular elements rather than graphic symbols. Their placement, repetition, and overlap were used to study surface organisation, spatial tension, and rhythm.

Letter positioning study 1: puffed letters pinned to a dress form.
Letter positioning study 2 on a dress form.
Letter positioning study 3 on a dress form.
Letter positioning study 4 on a dress form.
Letter positioning study 5 on a dress form.
Letter positioning study 6 on a dress form.
Letter positioning study 7 on a dress form.
Letter positioning study 8 on a dress form.
Letter positioning study 9 on a dress form.

Toile

A toile on a dress form: cream kimono top over green puffed trousers.
A toile of a white puffed collar.
A toile skirt in pale blue quilted fabric.
A mirror photo in a cream calico toile cape.

Toiles were used as material tests to see how the textured and layered fabrics behave on the body. This helped me observe movement, weight distribution, and how surfaces respond when shaped and worn.

Final visuals

Final garment: a teal and cobalt checkerboard puffed cape, front.
The checkerboard cape in profile, rising into a tower.
The checkerboard cape from the back, with puffed graffiti letters.
Final garment: a cobalt squiggle-print puffed suit, standing.
The squiggle suit worn seated on a black beanbag.
The squiggle suit, arms folded.
Final garment: a coral puffed cape with an oversized quilted hood.
The coral cape closed into a column of puffed letters.
The coral cape from the side, lettered CAPE.

The final garment was used as a testing ground rather than a finished fashion piece. It allowed me to observe how printed, quilted, and puffed surfaces respond to stitching, scale, and movement. The focus remained on material behaviour instead of visual perfection.

Reflection

This project shifted my way of working from designing for appearance to designing through material processes. Exploring graffiti through textile techniques helped me understand how repetition, pressure, and human intervention shape surfaces over time. This approach strengthened my interest in material systems and Biodesign-led thinking.

The full Scribble to Rebel project

07 — Where it began

Traditional techniques are treated as living processes shaped by time, environment, and human intervention rather than fixed outcomes.

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