• Size: 36"x96"
• Handmade in India
• Part of Malika's Kantha Collection
• Traditional Bengali Kantha Embroidery
• Fabric: Silk

Shamlu Dudeja, along with her daughter Malika, recognized the need for reviving a dying art called Kantha. Setting up the nonprofit S.H.E (Self Help Enterprise), they trained seamstresses to go to the villages and look for women with sewing skills. The women then re-fashioned their worn out cotton saris into warm quilts by sewing the wad of fabrics with tiny running stitches, using threads drawn from the colorful woven sari borders. The stitches were often so precise that the overall ruche effect made the reconstructed ‘quilt’ an object of unmatched beauty. This was the original Kantha, the tangible cultural heritage of rural Bengal. 30 years on she has managed to elevate a poor man's stitch to the portals of fine art.