Apoorva Bansal Textile
Toys
Workshops
c Apoorva Bansal 2014
One of my intial experiences in the industry, Weaver’s Studio, based in Calcutta, provided me with a very valuable experience in understanding the dyanamics of a setup. Right from conceptualising patterns inspired from famous artist’s paint styles such as Jackson Pollok, Van Gogh and Gustav Klimt, to translating them into prints and weaves, the studio gave me enough flexibilty experimant, make mistakes, and be able to learn from them.
Weavers studio
Concepts and sketches
Texture Prints
woven stoles
One of my favourite exploratory projects, Shibori, the art of Japenese dyeing, taught me a lot about experimenting, trial and error, and that mistakes can some time appeeal better than perfection. We delved into different techniques under Shibori such as tradional ones like Arashi, Itajime, Nui etc, while collaborating them with newer forms like degumming and heat setting.
SHIBORI
Shibori Prints
The bee This garment was the end result of my shibori exploration. Taking inspiration from the bold colour contrasts of a honey bee, and experimenting with the various fabric manipulation tecniques learnt, I created a hoodie combined with sleeves to form a shrug-like garment. I used layering and degumming for the sleeves and heatsets for the hoodie to make an unconventional wearable piece.
Wall Street is the name of my collection of screen prints that involved inspiration, interpretation, translation, and execution. Walking down the street while looking at torn posters, rusted signs and unusual imagery gave me inspiration of incompatible elements coming together, yet creating a particular type of mood. Just by looking at this often ignored artwork, I realized a huge potential of experimenting with textures, colors, layers and text. It is a fine amalgamation of natural treatment over manmade artwork over a period of time, which makes it complex and interesting. The process of slow deterioration almost seems like an alive and an ongoing process. My challenge was to translate this movement and spontaneity onto cloth.
Wall street
Screen Print
The final leg of Wall Street, I translated my prints into a screen, or a temporary rroom partition. Since i was using scraps to create my swatches, I decided to further use junk to create products out of my prints. I used cycle tyre frames as the main component. The criss-cross look of the cycle spokes gave an illusion of depth and layering, while the tyre frames themselves gave the rogue feel of a street and its various textural elements.
A team of 4 designers were selected from our college to undertake this socially significant project. The initiative was collaboration by the Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India in collaboration with Ujwal Trust and Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology. The basic project brief was to introduce a design process and tools of lateral thinking among the lower income group women who practiced embroidery but were unable to exploit the skill as a means of freelance employment and income. They were introduced to concepts such as product development, design development, color theory and newer techniques in embroidery to save their time and effort.
Co Creation
Co creation
The concept toy that I designed is a plush that suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD). It was designed to encourage story-telling and imagination around itself since it involves multiple characters within one toy. One character opens into another one and so on. Its a basic idea of a stuff toy but taken forward in terms of interactivity and imagination. It also intrigues the child as it creates a mystery and surprise as well.
TOY LAB
Multiple Personality disorder
The toy revolvs around a similar concept as the MPD toy in form, and is. However, these are hand stitched travel plush toys. They come in the for of a bag monster with contains all the other characters one inside the other, hence providing as a personal piece of luggage for the child. Moreover, it also has customisable features to make it more personal and engaging for the child. The monsters are travellers, collecters and explorers, and each provide an interaction in order to give the child company while they travel!
MonstroCity
User Test
bwaak. Bwaak poor Bwaak. He is a travel
freak! But oh no, speed makes him so so sick! He gets all dizzy and wants to throw up!
Flapflap.
Ooohah.
Since he has seen birds on the planet,
Ooohah cannot believe what his eyes
fly!. Now he is on a mission. To collect as
he hasn’t blinked in years! He likes to
build his own monster wings!
belly where his brain is.
Flapflap just cannot stop wishing he could
acan see. He is in so much awe that
many feathers so that he can get he can
remember all his good memories in his
Some iterations of the journal that comes along with the toy. The child can fill it up and stick things making it more interesting. It tells the story of each of the character and at the back has a list of statistics which can be then filled up by the kid completely upto his imagination!
MonstroCity
wash care ‘The monsters of Monstro-city have always been phobic of big washing machines. It all started when a monstro-tian Boop tried to take a bath in a latest automatic water heating machine instead of simply taking one in the tub, too lazy to heat up water. What came out after the wash, Monstrocity will never forget. Half shrunken- half colourless poor Boop. He still shivers when he hears the sound of the machine! It seems Monstro-tians dont agree to the current and the motion of the machine. So take care of your Monstro-tians and give them a gentle bath with your hands using only luke warm water and some soap. They are not as strong as they pretend to be!’
illustration and character design
Character design
t - shirt illustration
toylab exhibition An exhibition set up by a team of 9 students and headed by Anders Sandell, leader of the Toy lab at Srishti. The theme was the attack of the giant evil plush octopus on the 8 cities, each city being set up between the two legs of the octopus. Each city then had a toy being invented, to help the city break out of the control of the octopus!
I’v spent the past year conducting a number of workshops in the area of Play and designing play concepts with the children, for the children. The toy lab was a very inpiring space, and gave me a good direction to go with the workshops. I collaborated with Club Hatch in Bangalore to facilitate sessions with kids aged 4-10. The results of the worshop were amazing and children really got involved into the themes and topics. I conducted a couple of workshops personally, which involved the children to create their personalised cushions and bags usng the technique of screen print.
Workshops
Kipshake
is a monster of
many stories, wrapped in his arms are his multiple histories ! Alas life for Kipshake is not as easy as it seems, with the soul of one monster, he lives seven different lives, and each night has seven different dreams! Open him up, meet each of the his inner friend, listen to their tales, play with them, show them some love, and help Kipshake’s life mend!
Dromee
the monster is a strange little thing, he doesnt have a face of his own, nor can he sing! He becomes what you wish for, just draw, paint and colour. give him a face, some teeth and maybe a superpower! Have fun and use your imagination, for this monster can be your own personal creation !
Billy Cho is a monster real crooked, for his dream is to steal all the cats in the world , make them sit still all day long, oh isnt that super wicked?
But some cats are smarter than what he thinks, they hide so cleverly, Billy cant trace the missing links ! Can you spot them anywhere around? I think they can see you , laughing but trying so hard not to make any sound!
Meet the super tough monster
HOOHOO,
the fighter against evil ! Anyone out to harm you? No worries , he is always there, all you do is whistle ! The buttons on his body are his most important tools but the kind soul that he is he doesnt mind sharing them with you to ward off evil fools !
Moony the monster was
obsessed with the moon, so much so, he ate it up! oh such a loon! But now he is never afraid of the dark, for he has the moonlight forever in his heart. So If you ever feel scared of the night, call out to Moony for the shining moon and the stars so bright!
Bookbeast
for the monster, books were life. he read and he read and he read and he read, until the time everything had been fed into his head. Little did he realise since he had not seen the mirror, he himself was turning into a page, of words, drawings, numbers and could not look funnier !
Wishbone
is a monster loved by many for he grants wishes and makes dreams come true, be it any!
Branding How is that possible you wonder? His horns are magic horns with lovely rainbow colours ! They grant your wish if you want it with all your might . so share your secrets and wishes in his heart, and everything will be alright!
multiple
play
disorder
multiple
play
disorder
multiple
play
multiple
play
disorder
disorder
multiple
multiple
play
disorder
play
disorder
The workshop aimed at children creating their own perceptions, ideas and creations around the theme of ‘monsters’ . The theme was chosen keeping in mind its subjective nature and the vast possibilities around it. The workshop also aimed at involving the multiple intelligences and hence was planned out in such a way. The kids were exposed to several different media at different days which revolved around the similar theme. There was paint, paper, dance, paper mache, natural twigs and leaves and all kinds of material for the kids to experiment and explore. For each of the creations and monsters they created, they finished it up with giving them names, stories and even their very own super powers. The theme enabled them to imgine without restrictions and create a whole new world of their own.
workshop posters
Creating Play Ideas
A workshop organised under Club Hatch where children got a chance to develop and create an awesome ‘play’ space, a board game (small or life size), or a reconstructed toy that they could call their own. They got to imagine, break, build, experiment and create, while having the freedom to explore the basic idea of PLAY. It included imaginative play, role play, game play, physical play, etc, in the form of toys, characters, games, spaces, and things kids associated with this topic. They experimented with several different media and materials while brainstorming, prototyping, ideating, creating and crafting your PLAY ideas. The 5 day workshop aimed to come together as a large, fun, and a creative ‘play’ space that was shared with family and friends towards the end.
workshop posters
The play imaginarium
A workshop that I conducted personally at events like Kitch Mandi and the like in Bangalore. The workshop is a screen printing workhop for children. It involved children designing a storyboard for themselves out of the several elements that were available to them. They chose different monster characters, and built a composition around it. The composition was then translated into a print on a cushion cover or a cloth bag by the children themselves with my assistance.
workshop posters
Print a tale
Four of us visited the village of Bhujodi, a major textile centre of Kutch, famous for the Vankar weavers. Exquisite shawls, traditional blankets and handicraft products are famous here. We as a group of four, explored the weavers’ community in Bhujodi and researched for a few days on the various aspects of the town. Our interactions with the people gave us insight into the structure of the community, national level recognition through awards, the influence of the 2001 earthquake on their lives, international exposure, industrialisation and other changes that the town has undergone over the years. Interacting with the people led us to realise the interdependence between the communities and twists and turns their hritage faced through the years. The following project was exhibited at the LENS conference 2011 held at Srishti School of Art and Design.
Unseen Craft : The journey of Weave in Kutch
Master Weaver With an aim of reaching to a larger audience; we compiled our experience and understanding of the small town through a board game. The game maps out the different eras of the town, beginning from how the village emerged to the present day scenario in weaving. As a player in the game you become a weaver of the village and travel through the different eras, make decisions with an aim to earn maximum money along the way. The game has a dual purpose of acting as a stool when not being played. The top of the stool opens up to reveal the game board.