“A couple of months later, I felt that I wanted to do something more with the training I had obtained from the trip as a spark had ignited within me. A few months later, in Munnar, I came across a vacant cattle shed on one of my walks along the tea plantations.”

—— Ratna Krishnakumar ——

The story of Aranya Natural is rather special to the Mrs. Ratna Krishnakumar, the Managing Trustee of Srishti Trust. In late 1993 she went to Dhaka, Bangladesh on a pleasure trip with a friend to learn Natural Dyeing.

The Management of the plantation was willing to give this shed located in Nethimudi on Gudrale Estate, an hour’s drive from the centre of Munnar. She and her friend decided to conduct workshops on natural dyeing upon their return. After a couple of workshops, Mrs. Krishnakumar was convinced that this was more than a passion for her.

a trip - a new skill - an idea rooted from passion …

A few workshops on and with growing interest from the specially-abled young adults who were currently employed at the Vocational Training Centre the birth of the idea of creating sustainable textile using Natural Dyes came to life.

The Birth of Aranya Natural

The project from inception grew as a sustainable livelihood generation enterprise for the specially-abled young adults facilitated, guided and managed by Wives of plantation officers willing to share their time to built expertise, share knowledge gained from experts and mentors and guide the specially-abled in enhancing grasp in the art of dyeing in the world of natural dyes.

Our first steps …

In 1994, the current premisses of Srishti Trust, which housed DARE, The High Range Preserve processing unit & the Vocational Training Centre had a tiny abandoned storage shed towards the far corner. The then General Manager of the Plantation had plans of using the large warehouse-like premises for a worm farm for vermi-compost ! With some convincing and reiteration of the cause to which Aranya was dedicating its efforts towards, the management relented and finally conceded.

Aranya started with 6 specially-abled adults. The team along with 2 plantation staff wives, 2 helper boys, Mrs. Krishnakumar and one Manager went on their first trip as Aranya to Calcutta to attend a professional Natural Dye workshop. Having dyed with naturally grown plants in and around plantation bungalows, staff homes and from the forest, the knowledge of dyeing was very rudimentary at the time.

Eupatorium was one of the most popular and freely available raw material at the time.

And… that’s where the experiments started !

The vision that led Mrs. Krishnakumar to buy books, attend seminars, interact with experts & gain knowledge along with the then Co-ordinator who was operating Aranya in Munnar was more than just a passion - it was a mission ! While the Library at Aranya grew, she realised that attending workshops would be the best and most authentic way to engage with professionals in the field as well as gain technical knowledge on this intimate art of Natural Dyeing.

Towards the beginning of 1995 the Co-ordinator and Mrs. Krishnakumar travelled to Sarawak, Malaysia to participate in a workshop. As the years progressed, the team went to the Textile Society of America where Aranya held an exhibition of Stoles with Tie & Dye & Batik artwork. Aranya’s Associations with the Natural Dye community & Artists grew strong roots from Mrs. Krishnakumar’s personal associations owning to her passion for the craft.

Our slow but steady growth …

In late 1996, Mrs. Krishnakumar came across The Yarn Tree in New York online. A few months later, a rendezvous with Linda Labelle in New York developed a monitorship bond for Aranya and a lifelong personal friendship with among the two women as well. A year later, while at a Sutra conference, attended by many from the Natural Dye world along with Artist, Curator & Educator and Master at Natural Dyeing - Yoshiko Wada.

While exchanging good-byes a casual glance at Yoshiko's card revealed details of her book “Memory of Cloth”, which was incidentally the book that was the Aranya Workshop GuideBook. The realisation that Yoshiko Wada was “Aranya’s Teacher in Absentia” took Yoshiko by surprise and struck a chord with her.

Within the year she visited Aranya for the first time to conduct a workshop.

Yoshiko Wada introduced us to Anna Lisa Headstrong, another one of Aranya’s teachers. Yoshiko would come every years with groups of Textile enthusiasts - men & women who would conduct workshops in Aranya. Moments etched in everyone’s memories of knowledge sharing, learning and unlearning of the year gone by ..