Kshema
2017 | Ahmedabad
from food to fabric
The general theme of the project was ‘cooked food’ (sweet or savoury). The brief was to make something fresh for the current market by using practical, commonplace and cost effective materials. I chose this dish, because of the fact that it is made occasionally only in a few households and hence is rare. It has a very interesting organic surface and form. It also has an elaborate and tedious process of making and has a mix of different elements coming together in a very unique way.
The general theme of the project was ‘cooked food’ (sweet or savoury). The brief was to make something fresh for the current market by using practical, commonplace and cost effective materials. I chose this dish, because of the fact that it is made occasionally only in a few households and hence is rare. It has a very interesting organic surface and form. It also has an elaborate and tedious process of making and has a mix of different elements coming together in a very unique way.
I started analysing the Sajjappa in every way possible. Associating it to other things and seeing it in relation with other objects gave me a more clear picture of what is unique to this food item.
Some of the processes of making the sweet were translated to paper concepts.
The concept of filling a circle and sealing it, directly translated to a Japanese wrapping technique called 'Fuxico'. Further explorations led me to creating a unit combining elements with different textural qualities simply by changing the filling (waste fabric pieces, yarn, cotton and felt). This property goes hand in hand with the concept of acupressure and made for a therapeutic foot rug.