Dreamscapes- by Varshikaa Menon

ockets of random, unexpected happenings, unreal beings, surreal settings come together to create a whole new world that is my dreamscape. Taking these inconceivable feelings, associating them with tangible elements and translating them into woven pieces was a refreshing experience. Since I am someone who aspires to be a practitioner who is playful, intuitive yet mindful and personal, the SAORI loom befriended me as soon as I started working on it. 

As part of my internship project, I create fabric backlit frames for home décor purposes. I decided to create five panels of varied sizes using different combinations of techniques that I had learnt and discovered during the first few weeks of exploring SAORI techniques

Each panel had a synthetic frame, the woven piece, handmade textured paper, acrylic sheet and LED lights laid throughout the back of the frame. The lighting circuit was done by interconnecting the panels. The acrylic sheet was to diffuse the strong light and the handmade paper helped add texture to it

The woven pieces had gaps, holes and varied densities and so the light would come out in different intensities throughout the frame. This created a sort of eerie yet playful, dreamy yet dark image when the light was switched on.

For the weaves, I used some typically SAORI techniques, altered them a bit, combined them with other techniques to create a new effect and sometimes unexpectedly bumped into a new technique. I think that’s the beauty of working on the SAORI: the possibilities of the loom expanded every day and so did my amusement. Not one day went by without me being mind-blown by how much one could create with just two shafts.

S.Varshikaa Menon is pursuing her degree in Information Arts and Information Design Practices at Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore. She interned with Shuttles & Needles studio for 2 months recently.