The Kissa Collective
2020 - 2022
Role : Co-founder, Creative Lead
An initiative to be the bridge between beautiful artisanal products and art lovers through the pandemic. Our aim was to bring these products online at a time when things weren’t as accessible offline to all.
We worked on bringing their stories new people and giving their artisanal products a new home.
It started when we spoke to a few artisans we personally know about how the pandemic has affected everyone. The lack of tourism also led to a lack of sales for many of them and an abundance of unsold goods. Realising how many of us were waiting to buy handmade goods again, we started our journey with handwoven, handprinted sarees & fabrics.
This eventually became my inspiration for the logo of our brand, the threaded shuttles which help make metres of fabric.
Taken from the Devanagiri Script, the logo is presented with the first letter of the name as the thread is being woven through
Kissa, means a tale or a story, in the language Hindi
A shuttle is a spindle shaped device used to carry the weft through the warp. Its also used to created small woven in patterns in fabrics, like Jamdanis.
Home edits
About the products
#1
Handwoven cotton bedsheets
These beautiful cotton handwoven bedsheets full of colour and joy come from Bhaghpat, Uttar Pradesh. They are made in all the variety of striking colours. These bedsheets are not only easy to maintain but are also really durable and only get softer with every wash.
#2
Block-Printed
home linens
The Block Printing artisans have been residing in Bagru over the years, adding colours to the pristine white cottons. They derive these vibrant colours from natural sources, design seamless patterns which are carved into blocks to transfer on cloth. Each colour has a separate block assigned to it and eventually is washed and cured before we receive it.
Shoot idea
Through the images we wanted to showcase the product at its best & give a realistic idea of what it would look like when used as a part of one’s daily life. The comfort it could give via the colour & fabric.
Bringing out the beautiful pop of colours against whites. I wanted to create a very homely mood with the help of neutral & subtle backgrounds.
Neutral backgrounds to bring out the striking colours of all fabrics
Natural Textures of the fabric shown
Realistic Props to give a homely mood & coziness
Onam Collection
About the products
Kasavu, a staple in every wardrobe in Kerala. They are woven out of pure cotton yarns and fine silver threads which are dipped in gold too. The designs woven in to them are mostly inspired by nature.
It's only in the recent times that they have explored making them in other materials like linen, silk, tissue Linen.
Shoot idea
Through the images we wanted to showcase the product at its best & give a realistic idea of what it would look like when used as a part of one’s daily life. The comfort it could give via the colour & fabric.
Bringing out the beautiful pop of colours against whites. I wanted to create a very homely mood with the help of neutral & subtle backgrounds.
References
Vellakas, one of the type of oil lamps used during onam
Flowers are also used to fill out decorative brass vessels called Urli
Pookolams, the designs made of flower petals
Kasavus are worn by all women during this festival
Block-Printed sarees
About the products
This collection was a compilation of sarees from 2 states known for their gorgeous block prints, Gujarat & Rajasthan. All of them are made completely using natural dyes. The Modal silk & Mul sarees coming from Ajrakhpur and the Kota doria sarees coming from Bagru.
They are extremely easy to drape and fall beautifully.
Shoot idea
The area of focus was the drape of the saree, to show the flow and fall of it. Draped directly over a chair likewise to that of a person sitting to showcase the ease with which is stays, while also highlighting the pleats & the pallau like one wears normally.
References
Pallu drape
Pleats drape
BTS
Handloom Bags
About the products
From Bagru, Rajasthan, these bags are handmade paired with faux leather. The fabrics are the first developed by either hand block-printing or kantha stitch work and then developed into handcrafted totes, satchels and laptop sleeves.
Self-shot with a timer and my phone, this shoot is one my dearest ones
Shoot idea
The focus of this shoot was to bring out the textures and colourful prints of the materials. So I used a very neutral colour for the background.
The addition of a person's body in the frame also helps the client/viewer to perceive the size of the bags.
mood References
BTS
