“A native of Kannimalay Estate of Kannan Devan Plantation Hills Company. My parents are plantation workers. My father passed away when I was 12 years old. I was born with an orthopaedic disability in my limbs. I am un-married and live with my mother who is now retired.
I joined the Vocational Training Centre in 2000. I didn’t find my interest in Paper making. I joined Aranya Natural - The Natural DyeHouse a few months later where I am a dyeing assistant. I have been assisting with mixing dyes and rinsing fabric. I love to see the beautiful hues on yarn, stoles and scarves reflecting off the fabric when I hang them out to dry. I dyed my first saree on my 35th birthday. It is a one-of-a-kind, from the Flowers of the Hills Collection of Aranya Natural. An organza with Katano bougainvillea flowers dyed with Indigo and Lac to give a rich Burgundy hue.”
—— Ramalakshmi ——
The DyeHouse – Aranya Natural today rehabilitates 39 adults who dye textile.
The forests of Munnar are their paint box, providing the palette of colours used to paint from in the dye making process. The specially-abled artists at the DyeHouse have been trained by the world renowned Shibori Scholar, Curator & Artist - Yoshiko Wada in the resist-dye technique of Shibori. The textile created is embellished with traditional & contemporary patterns using the Shibori techniques as well as an array of traditional Indian textile craft techniques like Batik, Block Printing & Tie & Dye
.
Creative designs curated by in-house designers breathe life into fabrics using fresh-leaf eco-printing & the traditional Indian art of block designs have had long standing patronage.
Meet The Team
——ARANYA NATURAL ——
We travelled the world…
As the years went by, we attended many exhibitions across India and the world. One of the more significant ones was a quilting exhibition in London, where we now conducted a workshop, we had a stall with our new and perfected Shibori techniques, we interacted with curators, artists, buyers & designers and made deep forays into the world of Natural Dyeing. We had become a name to reckon with and had organically grown our reputation through personal interaction and relationships built on mutual trust and understanding.
Over the 2 decades, we have travelled the world with our specially-abled artists. Muthupechi has been to France to conduct a workshop at a Textile Group conference, Poongani attended a workshop in Minneapolis, JayLakshmi & Muthukumari to Japan, We attended conferences in Taiwan, Malaysia and exhibitions in India.
We were invited to NID to conduct a workshop and now have students come yearly on internships. This was a great turning point for innovation and design at Aranya.
We have attended Workshops, participated in Exhibitions
& our crafts have been show stoppers at Fashion Shows
The artists and in-house designers at the DyeHouse have been creating sarees in silks, organza and linens, pashmina shawls, stoles & scarves, table-linen and cushion covers.
Every piece of our artwork is created from natural dyes
extracted from eucalyptus, Nilgiri kozha (eupatorium), tea waste, pine cones and other leaves, petals, roots harvested from the forest floor minutes away from the workshop. We source Indigo from South India and we grow our own seasonal crop too. Lac from Jangir Champa and Myrobalan an extract of a yellow flowering tree sourced from traditional medicine shops. Cochineal is imported from Canada.
