Musical weaving

How can we not get inspired by music in December, the month of grand music festival in Chennai!

While weaving is said  to be ‘visual music’, we took it literally and set the warp with 8 colours on 8 shaft Ashford Katie loom – one colour per shaft. Named the shafts resonating with the ‘swaras’ sa,re,ga,ma,pa,da,ni,sa. Looking for a nice ‘varnam’ (composition), we chose a popular one in raag ‘Sankarabaranam’ and weaved the notes by lifting the corresponding shafts- listening to the melodious composition! The weaving loom got transformed into a key board, the levers turning to be the keys!

It was fascinating to weave this piece, You can see the notes moving in the fabric in lovely patterns. The colour interaction throws a lot of surprise. View from one side, you see reds & purples and view from the opposite side, you see yellows and blues and hues between them.

After weaving this beautiful piece, it occurs to the mind that it is appropriate to name the loom shafts after the swaras. Weaving by nature is full of life with interplay of colours & textures. Calling them ‘shaft 1, shaft 2’ makes it inanimate. Any thoughts?

Watch the video to see how the raga takes shape in colours!

Weaving appeals to everyone's creativity! Click to explore more