Thursday, 14 April 2016

Craft and Art .. Shahid Ansari. An interview

Shahid Ansari : an interview by Jeet Pandya. 

 A visit to Tvak studios by artist shahid Ansari led to an interesting conversation over a cool glass of lemonade. 

Who are you and what do you do Jeet asked him, as soon as he was introduced to Shahid and I share with you the details based on the conversation. 




Shahid hails from Radhanpur. He got inspired from the Traditional and aari work of  radhanpur primarily.He moved to Ahmedabad and for 5 years he  learned embroidery and different techniques with different mediums


At his workshop, He expanded his team and now has about 10-15 karigars



After spending 15 years doing job work like aarizardosi and producing various bridal collection pieces In the year 2005- Due to the introduction of computerized embroidery the textile and related work industries were affected specially the traditional method of embroidery work largely, workers and karigar were left without work and people left to do daily wage work. At one point he had to shut down his workshop. For 2 years he was unemployed. About 800 karigars quit  but he never really quit he tried to see what to do with what skill he had 
The man has a vision he used his skill to do art pieces and Took the work to a new level.

His inspiration were the buildings of heritage. He studied these monuments. Learned about it.
Studied the lines and patterns of buildings and how they could be depicted in this new medium of Ari and jardozi. 

2 years passed and he got deeply engrossed in his work. studied ahmedabad and buildings and put them into textile format . 
Sitting at Delhi darwaja at 7 in morning for 2 hours before the traffic hit used to be his way of study and the building was one of the first he did. 
For 3 years he worked on his collection of different monuments of ahmedabad and the world


He works with Cotton fabric, velvet fabric, silk fabric. Fabric is stretched on wooden frames. Raw materials also include  metal beads, jardosinakshi, silk thread. 


Future vision : 

He hopes to open up a centre for education of the different techniques and traditional embroidery work to preserve it. He wants children to come and study and learn the process and take their products to a national and international level and also to provide employement to karigars working for the medium.


He says throughout the years People have praised and mocked him for his workBut Both of the views have helped him go ahead and he has never looked back.

He wants to create monuments of diff countries and have shows so as to share our traditional culture and the method and to have it spread across different nations so that people know about it and learn.

We wish him luck always ! 





How Murals are made : Deviba Wala 's Studio

Butterfly wing : Painted Mural

From concept to executing the work 

:) paint what you see and you can't go wrong !!!




I have always worked with my gut when I paint and I don't rush things. An idea will come when it will come, I feel blessed to have the ability to translate these fragile figment of imagination into tangible real works. it's a little crazy sometimes when you 're always seeing things differently and finding shapes. but I am not complaining :) 
My style of working is to have the canvas or material in front of me where I can see it and then just have it near me to keep staring at until an idea takes shape or in some poetic way until it speaks to me. 
I have tried forcing the process by sitting with a size written on a paper and beginning to do a series of sketches to then try and fill that space.. It never works for me.  
I need to cut out a canvas that size and have it in front of me. Then I can paint.






This has taught me that it's ok to do things the way you want to ..
Ok if your processes don't match those of others - this makes the work more mine. 
I know every work I leave behind is a part of me 

Monday, 11 April 2016

A little thought .. One of those days :- Jeet Pandya

Jeet Pandya 

Pen and Ink Work 

A young man and his thoughts. 




I am not happy,
I am not sad.
I am only there, 
here or anywhere.
I am not living like one should be,
I have failed to learned to live.
Such tragedy is my own to keep.

But I am not sorry for my existence,
And thankful to those who care.
I will not kill my spirit or let others kill it.
It troubles me very much to just be
More than it troubles you, me being around.





- Jeet Pandya


Now I am trying to paint to these words
And would like to know if you all ever do this
Send me what you write and what you paint on
Jeet.tvak@gmail.com