The up-cycling upgrade

The designer’s latest creation of yarn made from sanitary napkins.

Used milk packets and dried up teabags turn into useful yarns and fabrics at the hands of process designer Sneha Ravishankar. When the first lockdown was announced, Ravishankar, a professor in the Fashion and Textiles department at The Design Village in Noida, sniffed out everyday household waste items to turn into upcycled works like earrings, neckpieces and artworks, and made them available for purchase on her Instagram page.

"When the first major lockdown was called, all schools had to start functioning virtually. Many students were in different parts of the country and while some had access to materials to complete assignments, others didn't. As educational institutions, we have strict rules about materials but we don't realise that students might not have many things readily available to them. So the idea arose from the question of if I had to make materials at home, what could I come up with?" says Ravishankar.

Earrings woven from yarn made from used milk packets.

Through her work, Ravishankar aims to showcase the potential of everyday items that can be found around the house easily, and how to mend them into yarns and weave them into interesting creations. "My initial intention was for people to assess the items, not think of what could be created from them. While I can make yarn out of milk packets, what I really wanted people to see is that they too can do it. When we mention that it's just material woven out of milk packets, it restricts people's thinking," she explains.

For her latest project, Ravishankar has taken up the cases of sanitary napkins and converted these to embroidered surfaces. Following the traditional fibre-to-yarn textile process, strips are cut from the napkin, twisted, and spun into fine threads. "I'm very particular about the quality because it's not enough to just create something out of waste; it has to behave like a yarn. I want to be as strong as that and to work as a substitute for something that already exists," she says.

Art pieces made from discarded cassette tapes.

The process of sourcing materials is interesting too. For an artwork made of used teabags, Ravishankar alerted the residents of the building complex, to pitch in with their inputs, as well as reaching out to five-stars in Pune to source these waste items. "Teabags were one of the first items that I found on account of being home during the lockdown. I put out a message to residents in my building asking them to reach out to me with their used teabags and I also contacted the nearby Taj Group of Hotels to provide me with some, who were happy to do so since the bags would have been thrown out anyway. They also made sure to sanitise all of it," she reveals. In addition to this, all proceeds made from her creations are donated to different dog and other animal shelters across the country.

Sneha Ravishankar

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