After the long absence..

Wooden pre-looming instruments at the Weaving Co-operative

We've been absent here on the blog for a bit, cannot believe the year is ending already! Here's a peek at what we've been working on:

• The wonderful Jessica Custer from the MBAs Without Borders program has been our advisor since September until December 2013. We've been working on a number of things with her, including a marketing strategy, setting up systems to streamline work in our studio and getting our sales strategy in order. As she winds up by late December, all we can think about is how much we'll miss her! :(

• We've been working with the talented photographer, photojournalist and Fulbright scholar Seema Krishnakumar on a small video for Kara. Its still in progress, and more on that soon!

• We were invited to do a brief guest-post about our work on Kochi Post.

• Great new feature about our partner Given Goods Co. and our products on Design Crush.

• Organic yarn!! We've been working on a small sample of organic yarn from Kutch via Khamir. Excited to see where this new direction leads us.

• We've also hired some wonderful new people: Mallika, our textile designer + production lead and Sunitha, our front office co-ordinator.

• A tonne of new collaborations with some amazing people. Notably Ecru in Kuwait, School House Electric in the US, Dune Eco Group in Kochi and a few new ones that we'll be revealing on our site soon!

More regular updates on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram, so catch up with us there!

Our new metallic friend

So the past few months, we've been slowly growing our team and office-space as we work with a steadily growing list of clients (yay!)

The most visible change, if you came to visit our studio, would be a re-purposed shipping container sitting next to our office space. Take a peek:

The container in its new avatar as our studio annexe.

Here's why we did it:
• We needed more storage space.
• We had no time to make a new building.
• We did not want to disrupt the land and trees by new construction.
• We wanted a cost-effective and eco-friendly option
• The new space had to be airtight and waterproof to protect our fabrics. 

Since Kochi is a port city, we met with some folks who were repurposing shipping containers and this seemed to be an obvious solution. They cut out a window on one side for ventilation, fitted some metal shelves in it, painted it all over and voila: Instant-office!

Here is the container before it got glammed-up:

Here it is in the shipyard, waiting to be adopted!

This is our container's birth-certificate of sorts. Excited to see its path to our doorstep!

Two weeks ago, a big ol' truck showed up with our freshly repainted container atop it. A tough little crane was waiting to pick it up and drop it off next to our office.

I think they're pondering how this is going to work. Can you see the hook of the crane on top left of this photo?

Here's the big-little crane that picked it off the truck and put it in our yard.

Here's a cellphone-video that my dad took, of this whole process. The scary parts of a suspended container in mid-air are at the end of the video :)

It was plenty of drama, plenty of excitement, but everything worked out and now we've got an amazing new annexe to our studio.

Yay for more shelves!

Here is a view of its back window as it rests on cinder-blocks next to the studio.

I'm deciding what to paint on it, maybe our fabric patterns? Let us know if you have any fun ideas for this blank canvas. xo, Chitra.

September at the Studio

Photo-updates on our activities in and outside the studio, over the past few weeks:

We were finally all at the same place to get a team snap: (l-r) Chitra, Indu, Sreedevi, Sandhya, Revathy, Annu

This month was also when Indu and I made a quick trip to Singapore and Australia for some work and family visits:

A Koala-bum and us at the lovely Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary near Brisbane :)

The Singapore trip was to meet some family, and we loved the busy and charming city!

After the brief trip, we got back to the studio to resume work for all our lovely buyers:

Bathrobes getting packaged for the Good Earth stores.

Sandhya and Annu waterproofing a shipment for CGH Earth's Swaswara resort in Goa.

Table napkins awaiting packaging, for Terrain in the USA.

Meanwhile, our experiments in new weaves continues, as we broaden our wholesale portfolio:

Corded yarn bunches interwoven with the fine yarn.

Our brand new kitchen towels and napkins in jewel tones.

Combination of thick yarn cords and fine weave for table mats.

Wendell Rodricks and India Fashion Week 2012

Wendell Rodricks (image courtesy WendellRodricks.com)

A few months ago we got in touch with the Indian fashion designer Wendell Rodricks after Revathy (our project partner) mentioned our work to him. He had an idea to do a custom weave for his runway show at the Lakme India Fashion Week 2012 in Mumbai that concluded this past week ("Omg, for real?!!"-- was my reaction when Indu told me). To say that we were over-the-moon was quite an understatement, as we've been fans of this talented designer's work for ages!

Based out of Goa, Wendell's works a lot of structure and form into his design, and the hallmark of his creations have always been the way he works with white and off-white to make the garment's cut and construction stand out. In so many ways, his work fit our portfolio of fabrics so effortlessly!

What he wanted was a woven shawl with loose yarn detailing in White, Black and Brown shades. He sent us a detailed drawing and images of how he wanted this piece to work. We set about working with our weavers and here is the finished piece in our studio and on the runway at the LFW2012 (Show images courtesy The Times of India, Rediff.com)

Quick grainy shot of the piece in our studio, before we sent it over to Wendell.

The Times of India coverage of the show (images from TOI)

Another image of the runway event at LFW 2012 (via rediff.com)

As this collaboration draws to a close, we're so utterly thrilled to check this item off our dream-wishlist, and are overjoyed about getting the humble Kerala thorthu on the fashion runway! Wendell, we're so thrilled & proud to work with you and look forward to many such opportunities! xoxo, Indu & Chitra.

(ps: If you're a fashion designer and reading this, yes, email us about working together!)

Fresh off the looms

Here's a peek at our new unbleached yarn experiment to make a multipurpose product: at once a tablecloth, beach towel, sarong, summer scarf or a simple bath-towel. 

This 40 x 70 inch piece will soon be available in our wholesale portfolio, in the five lustrous colors below. Enjoy!