Art Therapy...

My name is Kavita Gandhi and I created KavitaKriti (Creations by Kavita).

My speciality is Indian luxury hand painted silk scarves. Through KavitaKriti my hope is to create awe-inspiring silk scarves with an honest reflection of my Indian roots. Growing up I was surrounded by Indian textiles and embroideries and always marveled at the craftsmanship of what I saw. KavitaKriti is an avenue for me to pay homage to these wonderful art forms and represent them to you in my own way.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Playing with Silk

This week I was in the mood to play with silk and I captured the process in a storyboard below. I tried several techniques and basically just let the silk do all the work :)
Dribbling paint, watermarks, salting, gutta work, watercolor effect, brush strokes, paint spots... basically all around good fun!

My idea was to paint alternating squares of blue and black blockprint designs with a border all around the scarf. I was going for a blockprint-batik effect and so started with two blockprint designs and traced them on the silk using clear gutta. Once the gutta dried it was on to the painting.



My color palette consisted of a sky blue, sort of lime green and black. I started with the blue blockprint squares and then filled-in the border. The green seemed too green (if that is at all possible :)), so I dulled it down with a little watered-down blue overpainted on the green and then finally gave the entire border a rinse of black resulting in this lovely dull henna color.


Next I filled in the black blockprint squares. All of the silk dyes were painted on dry silk and I let the colors flow in every which direction. The gutta lines were not solid so the colors mixed and mingled in every way possible. 


The dry silk probably stopped the dye from flowing around too much ofcourse. Finally I did a little bit of salting for texture in some of the squares and watermarks in others. I did not wipe away any of the paint spots purposely leaving them in for an uneven look. The final pictures of the scarf are displayed below and I'm quite happy with the final result. The colors work well together and the blockprint design is interesting.








Thursday, March 31, 2011

Sand Dunes - Crepe silk, Indian luxury hand painted silk scarf

KavitaKriti - Indian Luxury silk scarves, hand painted, handmade
Sand Dunes is a breathtaking pure crepe silk scarf in brown, black, rust and caramel shades. The colors in this scarf are rich and warm and can accentuate any formal wardrobe beautifully. The style of the scarf is typical of tie-dye dupattas in India.
KavitaKriti - Indian Luxury silk scarves, hand painted, handmadeKavitaKriti - Indian Luxury silk scarves, hand painted, handmade


A henna inspired peacock motif decorates one end of the scarf. The other short end of the scarf is embellished with a string of henna flowers.

Measurements: 10 x 63 inches (25 x 160 cm)



Shop at KavitaKriti




The henna peacock motif is stunning and the rust, copper, caramel, chocolate, black colors of the scarf are regal.

My color palette for this scarf from the Color Palette Generator
KavitaKriti - Indian Luxury silk scarves, hand painted, handmade


Harmonizing palettes matching colors in my scarf from COLOURlovers
KavitaKriti - Indian Luxury silk scarves, hand painted, handmadeKavitaKriti - Indian Luxury silk scarves, hand painted, handmade

And now my styleboard

Sand Dunes
Kaboodle
Sand Dunes by kavitakriti



Copper, rust and chocolate make for a rich and regal combination in this hand painted silk scarf. The scarf works beautifully against muted beige or taupe but it definitely enhances a wardrobe in burgundy, mahogany or rust. A lime or olive green contrast may only work for a few but it is an interesting pairing nevertheless.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

The Elephant Parade - Crepe silk, Indian luxury hand painted silk scarf

KavitaKriti - Indian luxury silk scarves. Hand painted. Hand Dyed. Handmade.
The Elephant Parade is a lovely pure crepe silk scarf in luscious vermillion red and copper rust orange. A row of elephants and fish adorn one end of the scarf like a decorated sari border. The colors are vibrant and rich and very Indian. The style of the scarf is typical of tie-dye dupattas in India.

Measurements: 10 x 58 inches (25 x 147 cm)



Shop at KavitaKriti

KavitaKriti - Indian luxury silk scarves. Hand painted. Hand Dyed. Handmade.
KavitaKriti - Indian luxury silk scarves. Hand painted. Hand Dyed. Handmade.


The henna elephant and fish motifs are whimsical but still reflect tradition. Looking at the design reminds me of an Indian wedding invitation actually and the elephants and fish are part of the parade :)

My color palette for this scarf from the Color Palette Generator
KavitaKriti - Indian luxury silk scarves. Hand painted. Hand Dyed. Handmade.
Harmonizing palettes matching colors in my scarf from COLOURlovers

KavitaKriti - Indian luxury silk scarves. Hand painted. Hand Dyed. Handmade.KavitaKriti - Indian luxury silk scarves. Hand painted. Hand Dyed. Handmade.

And now my styleboard

The Elephant Parade
Kaboodle
The Elephant Parade... by kavitakriti

The colors in this scarf, orange and rust, are intimately Indian to me. And I'm not at all surprised that hot pink and luscious lime green are proving to be good accent colors against the scarf. Indian fashion already markets these groups of colors together and I guess this styleboard just proves why. It works!!! Amber gold and chocolate are basic staples and my orange-rust scarf works beautifully against them. Good styleboard exercise people!!! :)

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Music to my Ears - Crepe silk, Indian luxury hand painted silk scarf

Indian Hand Painted Hand Dyed Luxury Silk Scarves by KavitaKriti
Music to my Ears is a breathtaking pure crepe silk scarf in luscious crimson, mulled wine and port shades. The colors in this luxury hand painted silk scarf are rich and warm and resonate perfectly with the musical instrument motifs in the scarf. The style of the scarf is typical of tie-dye dupattas in India.

An Indian wedding musical instrument motif is painted on both ends of the scarf. The long sides of the scarf are decorated with a henna vine.

Measurements: 10 x 58 inches (25 x 147 cm)

Shop at KavitaKriti

Indian Hand Painted Hand Dyed Luxury Silk Scarves by KavitaKritiIndian Hand Painted Hand Dyed Luxury Silk Scarves by KavitaKriti

I really enjoyed painting this particular piece. I had my eye on the musical motifs for quite some time but could not figure out what I wanted to do with them.

Now the fun beings. My color palette from the Color Palette Generator

Harmonizing palettes matching colors in my scarf from COLOURlovers

http://www.colourlovers.com/palette/936735/Pomegranate_Fudgehttp://www.colourlovers.com/palette/492759/Capezzolo_di_Venere

And finally my storyboard :)

Music to my...
Indian Hand Painted Hand Dyed Luxury Silk Scarves by KavitaKriti
Music to my ears... by kavitakriti


Now this was a very exciting experiment. I would have never thought to wear Music to my Ears with aquamarine. The scarf definitely works with pomegranate and plum colors but is a very nice touch to a chocolate or beige attire as well. Yippy!!!

Turning over a new leaf :)

A fellow silk painter posted a link to a really nifty tool that allows you to generate a color story based on a photograph and looking at that gave me a terrific idea. I have been thinking about creating a storyboard for my scarves for quite some time and I think I have finally figured out a way to do it.

My goal from this point on will be to try and showcase each of my scarves and provide you with some good color palettes that you can work with to match with the showcased scarf. This will give you a good idea of what you can wear with the scarf... something casual or something dressy, good color combinations that work together etc.. You get the idea ;)

And besides it's a great learning tool for me as well as I will get new ideas on what colors just hit it off. Can't wait to get started!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The Handmade Directory



The Handmade Directory

The Handmade Directory is an awesome FREE directory project where you will find hundreds and hundreds of unique, handmade crafts. Listings include sellers from Etsy, Artfire, 1000 Markets and lots more...

Really useful for people creating their own thing :) List your shop for FREE!