Life in Pink

Our muse for this collection is a blind woman who is madly in love, she can’t see anything but has a vivid imagination and is
a dreamer. She always wonders how colours look and finds it difficult to understand them; she says “For what I am told red
is anger, danger and also passion. Blue is sky, blue is water but water has no colour...Colours are confusing but what I know is that he gifts me pink roses. I don’t know pink but I know it re- minds me of him, his love and so I live LIFE IN PINK. Through this collection we try to depict her perception of the colour pink. As she sees everything through touch/feel we have incorporated the ancient craft of Rogan Art with a contemporary twist, which is 3D in nature along with Digital Prints and hand embroidery

Rogan art

Is an ancient skill with its origins in Persia, came down to Kutch round 400 years ago. Traditionally, the craft was pursued to beautify bridal clothing of the regional tribes, beautiful borders and floral patterns on ghagras, odhni and bead spreads. Forbearers of the seven generation old art are the Khatri family, for they appear to be the only family practicing the little known art in the small village called Nirona in Kutch.

The word Rogan means oil in Persian.
To prepare the paint, castor oil is heated in a vessel and continuously stirred for more than 12 hours till it catches fire. The residue is then mixed with cold water until it thickens into a sticky elastic paste called Rogan.
Delicate and precisely painted, Rogan paintings are often created from the artist’s own imagination. The artists prefer sitting on the floor while working, placing a small amount of the paint paste on their palms. They use oversized blunt needles to gently stretch some strands, which they place on the fabric in elaborate patterns.
The artists’ fingers under the fabric help the paint spread and shapes the design.

 Contemporizing the craft

Traditionally Rogan craft is done on fabrics like cotton and silk satin. For the first time we tried Rogan art on organza.
Rogan artists use their imagination to make their art and usually make intricate motifs like geometric flowers, peacocks, the tree of life, etc.

We took inspiration from their motifs, blended it with our print style to create a new artwork. This gives the craft a new look.
6 -7 colours that are organically produced (i.e. Pink, Light Blue, Orange, Yellow, green, white and black) are used to make tradi- tional Rogan pieces, we mixed colours and created new tints and shades like mustard, lavender, peach, brown, and shades of green. Subsequently we mixed different Rogan techniques to add depth and texture to the craft.