Sally Campbell: A web as intricate as her works

Saturday 28 February 2015

Hand woven indigo weaving from Nagaland. Photo: Sally Campbell Handmade Textiles

The web of Sally Campbell’s work may be just as intricate as the crafts she commissions. Dividing her life between Sydney and South Asia, it is like she has walked to the ends of the earth to find each craft she works with.

The artisans come from Bangladesh, Calcutta, Delhi, Gujarat, Hyderabad and Rajasthan. Their skills, drawing on the rich textile heritage belonging to each region, include block print, embroidery, natural dye, shibori, stitching, tie and dye and weaving.

They are men and women - Hindu and Muslim, modern and traditional - all working from environments as rich and varied as mother India herself. From concrete bunkers, to the desert, to thatched huts with hand painted walls, they bring together Sally’s modern interpretation of each traditional textile technique. Culture, language, distance and extreme heat weave further complexity into the mix.

Hand printed cotton table cloth (left) and study of pure indigo shibori tie dye scarf (right). Photos: Sally Campbell Handmade Textiles
“My aim is to get good quality work," explains Sally. "Nine years ago, when I first started, I was very naïve and didn’t know anything. I had worked in film in India, so I was put onto some people and I went from there. One thing went to another, from block printing to applique, so over a period of years I have tapped into this fabulous group of artisans,” says Sally.

“These artisans work with different people. Some work with lots of people, others don’t. I am the only Westerner that some of them work with, whereas others deal with lots of Westerners and are more savvy when it comes to our taste.”

“I am quite unusual because I am a designer that works directly with artisans," sally clarifies. "Big companies use a 'fixer', someone who finds all contacts for them. The designers meet the fixer, the fixer tells them where to go and they go and choose something. Or they give their designs to the fixer, who then gets them all made up. So it is like this big quality control way of doing business and takes a huge amount of headache away from doing it all. But these companies do not get to work with each artisan; they just do it through big companies. I can’t do that, because you have to put in big orders. Without realising it, I have chosen a pretty hard task.”

Hand woven cotton ikat bed cover (left) and study of hand cut applique cushion (right). Photos: Sally Campbell Handmade Textiles 


But one that she relishes. Constantly chewing on everything she has seen and learnt, she usually leaves Australia with a vague idea of what her next collection of quilts, throws, table cloths, towels and curtains will be. Block print designs will be drawings, ready to be carved by the block master, always with the added option of using his blocks, should one catch her eye.

Colours for her natural dye pieces are also in Sally’s mind, ready for the age old process of making brown from onion, saffron yellow from turmeric, green from pomegranate skins and “that gorgeous earthy rust” from the bark and leaves of eucalyptus trees.

The process is more fluid for the other crafts she uses, particularly Sally’s woven quilts and vintage throws. “With weaving, I always know the colours that I want to use, and the stitches, but I work the borders out when I am in India. The working environment is incredibly inspiring and I get all sorts of ideas from seeing the different weaving techniques when I am there.”

“The loom can take a month to thread, and then you also have to do a minimum of fabric. It takes years and years to train the weavers in Bengal my kind of work, because they are used to doing something totally different. You also have to make sure you give them regular work, because then they know they know they will be getting regular money… it is a responsibility you take on.”

Organdy appliqued curtains (left) and hand woven cotton bed cover (right). Photos: Sally Campbell Handmade Textiles


Admitting that improved domestic flight and mobile phones have made her work easier, Sally also credits a good diet, driver, translator and lots of water as some of her secret weapons in a country where "nothing ever goes to plan". As well as these tips, all gleaned during her 25 year former career as a fim designer, she sings the praises of a comfortable abode to retire to each evening, well away from the frenetic Indian streets.

Her husband, a documentary film maker and constant travel companion, pulls together three or four packed itineraries each year with almost military precision, both drawing on the lifetime of skill they have accumulated to plan well, stay flexible and nimbly respond to the unexpected. “My experience working in feature films was brilliant because there is a lot of spontaneity required and I was extremely experienced in going from one place to another and not being phased by it. If there were problems, you can solve them on the spot, rather than getting freaked out,” Sally explains.

So why?  Apart from the beauty Sally finds in each object she designs, from the travel and adventure, and ability to work and live creatively this amazing business of choice affords her, why does Sally weave this intricate and relentless web?

Organdy curtains, inspired by Korean pojagi patchwork (left) and Sally Campbell (right). Photos: Sally Campbell Handmade Textiles 


“Because these objects are total treasures and a rare luxury. I consider that you can personally treasure a handmade object – tremendous delight and inspiration can come from creating something special and rewarding. Handmade is always very unique and needs to be kept alive. The whole world is becoming the same with mass production. I am making an alternative for a small minority that are very special to me” says Sally. 

“I have got a creative gene and I am also very optimistic. I love every day of my life and try and make it something special, no matter what I do – with food, with exercise, with seeing friends. Most of the day goes into working because it [work] takes so much time and it is very hard to keep a good balance – but I do put a lot into everything because I have very high ideals. And it is important for me – I am a perfectionist.”

And perfection her work is. We all know that there is a plethora of cheaply made hand dyed, printed, woven and stitched textiles available from India, where many people are genuinely desperate to "earn a buck" as Sally puts it. Sally has made hers a very different journey, where the quality of the work and the skill of the maker determines every other step in the making chain. This choice has a wonderfully creative and flamboyant woman, nearing her seventies, running around the world. In the process, the life of each traditional technique has been extended for just that little bit longer.


Keeping Kantha alive

Saturday 14 February 2015

Small Kantha stitches adorn Indian vintage fabrics on these Vintage Throws by Sally Campbell Handmade Textiles. Photo by Sally Campbell

For centuries, the women of old Bengal have taken their time softened cloth and pieced them together with tiny stitches. Clothing and other fabric scraps are given fresh life as the layers of their Kantha quilts. Thousands of mostly red and blue running stitches dot and pimple the fabric, giving a beautiful feeling and texture to each finished piece. Famed for its fine white muslin, highly sought after by traders throughout history, women's clothing was often the same colour, providing a wonderful blank canvas for each silk thread.

Following long days of house and child caring, the women were free to choose the path of each stitch once the final chores were done. These pieces were not commissioned by rulers, they were crafted for home and family, so each maker had the freedom to slowly create their heirloom of choice.

Motifs or geometric patterns would emerge, sometimes taking years, formed by up to three generations of the family’s women. The simple running stitch could form a picture of daily life, with plants, animals and people moving across each piece's reach. Other times, religious motifs or personal wishes would favour.

Whatever the choice, each quilt, cushion and small dowry piece carried the hopes and feelings of their creator. Often the intention of protection could be foremost. Other times, the wishes might be closer to maker and represent a clear prayer for fertility, health and abundance.

Charming hand stitched quilts like this one are missing some of the hallmarks of its namesake. Photo by Threadbound
These pieces differ significantly to the hand stitched quilts we have been seeing on our design screens in recent years. Internet research, and the plethora of online stores offering such beauties, tell an acutely different story to that in academic articles and well-researched hard covers. So how do the two styles - an ancient craft and a strikingly different modern counterpart - relate?

Sally Campbell, creator of Sally Campbell Handmade Textiles, refers to the fashion process that took place during recent years to explain each style and make suggestions about what we should consider to keep the Kantha craft alive, while still catering to our contemporary taste.

Following a lengthy career as a film designer, which included time in the Indias film industry, Sally uses the traditional crafts famed in each area of India to create modern interpretaions of age old techniques. A self-confessed “textile junkie”, the step was a natural progression from decades spent trawling antique stores and working with a host of artisans to create designs for a plethora of genres.

She travels to India multiple times each year to work with the top artisans of each hand made trade, including embroidery, block printing, tie and dye, shibori, traditional weaving, natural dye and stunning hand-stitching.

True Kantha, like this dowry quilt, are rare. Photo by Sally Campbell
Her description of Kantha helps draw a line between what is known of the tradition and what we now see available everywhere.“The dowry pieces of Kantha are either geometric, or they have animals on them. They are very endearing and charming, like folk art," she says."Firstly, these dowry pieces are almost extinct, it is hard to get good pieces because it is a dying craft. Secondly, people here don’t want that kind of thing in their home, so to keep the Kantha trade alive, you have got to do something modern.”

“I spent the start of my career interpreting the Kantha stitch into something that was modern, and that is how I have been able to sell my quilts, but I would never call them Kantha, because Kantha is something that is something that is done on all of those beautiful dowry pieces and the stitches are so tiny… I could call my pieces from Bangladesh Kantha, because they are like works of art, but I put Kantha on a really high level, because of where the term comes from.”

Sally went on to explain the process she uses for making her hand stitched and double sided throws, which have adopted the multitudes of simple Kantha stitches. Every day, “her man in Bengal” sets off on his bicycle in search of vintage fabrics. These soft cottons are laundered to within an inch of their life, both in India and Australia, before being patched together and then slowly stitched. The beginning of each quilt takes place in a concrete Bengali bunker, where the finds have been stored. It takes three days to sort through a few months of finds, in temperatures of more than fifty degrees, all the while being watched by hundreds of curious dark eyes.

In the sanctuary of her accommodation, Sally then takes three days to match and order each cloth, before stacking them together with a selection of colours for the featured and non featured thread that each maker will use. The process is time consuming, and therefore costly, and gets repeated a few times per year.

A constant process of sourcing, sorting, laundering, matching and designing takes place before these minute stitches are slowly added. Photo by Sally Campbell  


Of the process, Sally says “When I first started in the business, the quality of the quilts was excellent, and then they [Indian manufacturers] started to churn them out. That was when I decided to do my own. An enormous amount of work goes into it to keep a very good standard.”

“The size of the stitch is driven by cost, because it is a very time consuming process, plus the stitching quality is always different with each person. However, I try and keep the stitches pretty small. On my most expensive quilts, the stitches are really tiny, so the price is obviously much higher.”

Sally has also created a range of hand-woven quilts, mostly white with bold stripes. These pieces are also adorned with a Kantha stitch, however here she uses “a larger stitch to get a more modern look.”

These quilts sit apart from the roughly sewn, yet still often beautiful, quilts we are often offered as Kantha in our current market. Understanding these distinctions seems to beg the question about what choice we should make when selecting one for our home. Admitting that this decision is often dictated by price, Sally explains that sometimes our buying choices also erode a traditional craft, rather than preserve it.

“I think the term Kantha has been devalued in the west, just like the term pashmina. Real pashminas are crafted from such fine and soft yarn that they are exquisite… and they are very, very expensive because they are so rare and costly to make. Now, most people do not want the original, beautiful pashminas, they will choose something mixed with synthetic and call it a pashmina instead.”

Sally favours small stitches on her Vintage Throws, which she believes are beyond fashion, and in doing so goes a long way to preserving the craft. Photo by Sally Campbell


“Most of the quilts on sale in the west are badly made, roughly textured and poorly stitched. Fashion has ruined the craft. I am still doing all of my quilts, because I am hoping they are beyond fashion,” she says.

In an ideal world, fashion might also start to integrate the Kantha technique of patching and sewing together our old clothing and fabric remnants. Certainly, home crafters could hark back to an ethos adopted in many sewing cultures of using what we have to create something beautiful and meaningful.

For those buying, Sally's perspective has enormous potential to make a well informed purchases. Kantha should be kept alive. Given that its original method of creation is now almost extinct, perhaps a healthy middle ground can be reached.

Our western tastes do often require a much simpler version of the “more bling the better” Indian palate, so the Kantha we are being offered could be a valuable way to keep parts of the technique alive. As the fashion now travels way past its peak, and the flood of hastily produced items are offloaded at lower and lower prices, perhaps we need to stop and take a good look at the quality of the simple little stitch and spare a thought for an ancient craft.

Hand stitched cushions by Sally Campbell Handmade Textiles sitting alongside my first Kantha stitch. Photo (left) by Sally Campbell (right) by Threadbound


 

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