4 Week Proposal Project for the Forest Department, Govt. of India
SHYAMA/
WOVEN DESIGN PROJECT
2025
The Brief
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To develop simple to successively complex fabrics with Tussar silk that can be learnt and woven by a novice weaver, while maintaining aesthetic interest and functionality for it to be sold in the market. In due course, provide skill development and employment to the native people of the area of Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh who are involved with silk spinning and wish to learn how to weave.
The Degumming Process
​Degumming of silk is the process of removing the natural sericin, a gummy protein that coats the silk fibers. Tussar silk, known for its rich texture and golden sheen, contains more sericin than mulberry silk, giving it a stiffer and duller feel in its raw form. During degumming, the silk is gently boiled in a mild alkaline solution, usually with soap, to dissolve the sericin. This process softens the fibers, enhances their natural luster, and prepares the silk for dyeing or weaving, while carefully preserving its unique texture and strength.
Concept Building
The project began with an exercise in developing concepts through abstraction. By picking a random everyday object and investigating its conventional and unconventional uses, novel connections and ideas could be developed.
Since this particular exercise had nothing to do with tussar as a material, a subconscious bias in terms of what is already commonly available in the market could be avoided and a new potential concept could be explored.
The fork as an object has inherent uses as a handheld object, in various arenas from food to gardening and as a utility tool.
A multitude of unconventional uses can be found for a fork. Abstracted words following this step, seemed to fall under two categories, visual and functional. The fork has a clear and distinctive form as well as a distinctive purpose.
After some more levels of abstraction, these words were finalised and further categorised into sections. This enabled a deeper dive into associations that could be made within this set of words and these words with their antonyms or synonyms, through word association, brainstorming and a thesaurus exercise.
The set of words seemed to have pairs that could be compared to discover further links. These could also be treated as individual concepts themselves for specific samples or other projects. The contrast within a fork is very clear, that opens up a lot of opportunities to play around with material, texture, feel and uses of the fabric samples to be made.
​Stripe Rhythm trials inspired by a fork with different amounts of tussar and cotton composed within the potential warp pattern.
The final chosen rhythm has a regular white and tussar stripe design with repeating thinner and thicker lines of white on a primarily tussar surface. This focuses on the regularity of the spokes of a fork, while still making sure it's a tussar dominant composition. The stark blue stripes almost feel uncomfortable and jarring and bring out the sharpness and imposition of the fork.
WARP CALCULATION FOR 4 SHAFTS
Reed- 38
Required Width- 8 inches
Required length - 3 meters
No. of ends - 38 (2 per dent) * 8 = 304 ends
Required Selvedge - ¼ inches on either side, ½ total
Yarns in ¼ inches (4 per dent) = 40 (20+20)
Total warp + selvedge - 304 + 20 = 324 ends
Yarn used: 2/40s blue cotton yarn, single ply silk yarn
The final drafting order combines two designs that repeat in sets of five alternately through the warp rhythm, creating different weaves with the interaction of the weft. The order is easy and repetitive enough for a beginner to follow and successfully draft, without major mistakes.
Broken orders seemed to work better for the chosen inspiration, since it created sharp and distinct lines and forms that fit well with the chosen abstracted word library.
Handling tussar & material learnings
SAMPLES
