We Are Returning to India

Welcome to our forthcoming travel blog, “Stories in Cloth”.

After 11 years, we are heading back to India for approximately five months, departing today. We are returning because Shira received a Fulbright-Nehru Professional Excellence Fellowship to pursue a project focused on exploring natural textile dyeing traditions and learning about how they are evolving in response to rapid environmental change and societal impacts post Covid.

She hopes to meet with artists, artisans, arts organizations, educational institutions and museums that are involved in preserving the cultural heritage of natural dyeing, as well as take lessons and study with different artists to familiarize herself with different phases of textile dyeing and design. She then plans to create a body of expressive art work on cloth that is informed by these activities and conversations.

In order to create a body of textile work, she plans to learn about Indian dye plants, methods of extracting color and preparation and mordanting procedures for cloth. She also wants to explore traditional design processes, including multiple forms of printing, stitching and embroidery.

In India, Shira will be hosted by the National Institute of Design (NID), one of the country’s premier universities for art and design. NID is located in Ahmedabad in the State of Gujarat.

David is very excited about this opportunity to return to India without having any obligations, other than to be of assistance to Shira when needed. He is looking forward to having a myriad of photographic opportunities and also plans to seek out opportunities to volunteer with non-profit organizations and/or government agencies engaged in conservation work.

While we plan to live and base ourselves in Ahmedabad, we will also travel elsewhere in the country as part of Shira’s Fulbright Fellowship project. We will document our explorations and travels in India through this “Stories in Cloth” blog. As our new posts are published, you will receive them directly in your email.

As a teaser to our exciting forthcoming journey, below are some photographs David took in India during his 2013-2014 Fulbright Fellowship.

Thanks for following along,

Shira & David