Ecoprinting with SOIL in Deula village

After starting Part•Art (cultural association) with partners Donatella Cianchetti and Elena Ciocca, I was working in Kolkata at a local handbag manufacturer called Torero. There I met by chance Sudipta Ray president of SOIL (Social Organization for Integrated Living) who asked me if my Part•Art Organization would design and implement a project for the women of the village cluster that SOIL supported for their farming. The women in general needed to acquire skills that would allow them to have earnings of their own.

I brought this request back to my valid internee Chiara De Vescovi who was collaborating with me on Braghetterosse in Milano at that time and she researched and came up with a proposal for eco-printing on textile using local plants and local fabric.

It was going to be a workshop offered to the village women to experiment and learn how to achieve attractive decoration on fabrics using local available plants.
The eco-printed fabric was in turn going to be purchased by Torero Company and used to make accessories which were going to be sold by Torero as Ethical Fashion by Braghetterosse. A circular economy that would benefit all the players involved. The textile was identified to be as a jute/cotton mix. Jute being sustainably and locally grown and being a strong fiber for making bags and cotton being needed for better dying.

The proposal was accepted and a visit and survey of the villages and the women was carried out. The project was described to the inhabitants and during a second visit, a preliminary workshop was run and questionnaire distributed to assess the prospective group that would have participated to the workshop.
Before coming back for the workshop itself, Chiara and I experimented at home with our local plants, samples of the actual material from India and different mordanting techniques that were first learning about and that required certain chemicals that we wanted to be eco-friendly.

Finally, we began the workshop at the end of May 20217. Soil had prepared a most convenient location in Deula covered by a tarp, so everyone was protected from the sun. Chiara and I with several helpers from Sudipta’s family worked with the village women and girls for 6 very full days and produced many valid samples using not only eco-printing technique but also improvising with making dies directly from the plants and making stencils.

This small pilot project that had required so much careful preparation was a full success for the participants, for us and for all the people involved. It had shown us the existing potential for mutual cultural, creative and economic growth.