Reinventing fabrics offered to Goddesses in Maharashtra, into quilts and sling bags, and transplanting Bollywood kitsch on to wooden stools, Raw Works injects honesty and simplicity back into home decor

Animator and designer Gayatri Rao likes making something out of anything, literally. "I would make my own jewellery, bags, shoes and what not out of bedsheets, jute, ropes, dry fruit, twigs and leaves."

At one time, she adorned her ears with dry sea horses that she picked up from the shores of Mahabalipuram. The result: "People would stop dead in their tracks and give me room, even in the obscenely overcrowded Delhi DTC buses!"

High-colour trunks are a salute to the dreams that paint the imaginations of people who make Mumbai their home. From item girls that seduce your imagination to Big B who inspired generations to follow their passion and land up in Mumbai, often with nothing more than a trunk (like Gayatri herself), these are a tribute to this city of dreams

Before that, life was more about winning unique drawing contests like the "Most Imaginative Child Contest". "The winner had to stuff the maximum items into a matchbox. I did over 300. Here again, the catch was breaking items into raw materials," says the woman whose vision for the 2005 film Raju & I, helped it become the most critically acclaimed Indian animation film. It also won her the National Award for Best Animation Director.

Around the same time, Gayatri joined forces with designer Zainab Tambawalla to establish Raw Works. "Traditional art uses colours and stories to tell us who we are... or were. Unfortunately, more and more of these traditional crafts are dying due to so-called progress."

The label is their attempt to bridge this gap between the traditional and modern by creating products inspired by traditional art motifs. For instance, their first series focused on the Pata Chitra storytelling tradition of West Bengal, which uses pictures and songs.

The Khanwaris (quilts) are a sprinkle of vibrant colours in double-shaded "Khann" fabric patched together in harmony. Women in Maharashtra traditionally used this handspun fabric as blouse pieces and offerings to Goddesses. Khann features elsewhere too. In Trikoni Kasmin Fernandes -u00a0a series of handbags that are definite head-turnersu00a0- and a pair of cute diaries called Saibai and Sakhubai (complete with a real nose-stud).
There are other influences too. Like Mumbai street kids in the Apunka Mumbai series or all-powerful Bollywood which Gayatri calls the "folk art of Mumbai".

call: 65207833
email: rawworks.india@gmail.com