Hyderabad: Art can take myriad forms and for Sandhya Madhuri, a city-based tapestry artist, exploring several different art forms eventually led to her discovering her true passion.
Sandhya is known for running The Weaving Bird, a website where she sells exquisite hand-woven tapestries that she makes all by herself. A self-taught tapestry artist, she dabbled in different arts like photography, music, and pottery before accidentally stumbling upon tapestry weaving three years ago.
“Though I work in the IT sector, I’ve always been attracted towards different art forms and I tried many. Three years ago, I chanced upon tapestry art on Pinterest and the weaves somehow captivated me and I decided to take it up by myself. After months of research, exploration and watching scores of tutorials online, I started off making tapestries,” says Sandhya.
“When I started off, it also reminded me of a lesson I had on the Baya Weaver Bird in school. That bird weaves its nest in an intricate manner and that is the inspiration behind the name as well,” she says.
According to her, this is a rare artform and that made it difficult for her to find the right resources, in terms of both knowledge and equipment.
“I went through profiles of several tapestry artists globally, read through many blogs, did a lot of trial and error before I first made one,” shares Sandhya.
Her weaves are unique in the sense that she utilises whatever that she feels is right for that particular project. “The beauty of art is that there are no rules. I weave whatever my mood tells me to and for the dovel that is used to hang these tapestries, I use anything from a proper dovel to a stick to a paintbrush to a wooden spatula. This makes the art form very therapeutic for me as it gives me a sense of freedom,” she says.
Her skill and interest in photography aided her art form as she could click brilliant pictures of her weaves to promote it. As she made more weaves, people asked her to teach them and she started online workshops.
“I conduct online workshops on weaving these tapestries and armed with the knowledge gained through the years, I tell people the ease with which they can start off this art form. For instance, I used an expensive loom to weave in the beginning but a life-hack is using just an old photo frame as a loom. People can also use jute rope, old sarees cut up into strips, cotton twine or anything to make this. You don’t need expensive equipment to start this,” concludes the artist.
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