Established in 1977, Tharangini Studio is a heritage blockprint workshop based in Bangalore, comprising twenty-five skilled artisans entrenched in sustainable practices.
Founded by Lakshmi Srivathsa, it continues today under the leadership of her daughter, Padmini Govind. From its inception, they are ahead of the curve by being committed to the wellbeing of the craftspeople, following ethical labor practices and fair trade, fair wages with benefits, profit sharing, and private health insurance. They follow environmentally conscious processes and only use organic GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standards) certified dyes.
Their team includes block printers, dyers, woodblock carvers, and colorists.
Two of the core team members, Govindanna – master block printer and Banu – natural dye expert, have been with them for over forty years.
Their group includes –
Block printers: Govindanna, Shankaranna, Satish, Krishna Bhat, Mallikarjun, Pandiyan, Dileep, Rajalingam, Ashwath
Colorists: Banu, Yashodara, Shobha
Dyers: Anbu, Veeramani
Support team: Krishnappa, Syed, Bhagya, Saralavati, Lakshmanappa, Susheelamma, Prakashanna, Shankar.
In addition to their textile production facility, they conduct workshops and training programs with a goal of sharing their knowledge and inspiring a younger generation to be involved with traditional heritage crafts. Tharangini Studio is committed to Community Outreach programs wherein they provide vocational training for specially-abled artisans at five Autism centers for young adults, impacting approximately one hundred young adults through this program. Additionally, they have set the groundwork to soon establish a women-oriented blockprint studio to support this community outreach effort.
At seemakrish, we have an ongoing partnership with Tharangini Studio for block printing our textiles since the founding of our company in 2012. Sustainability is our core mission and we care about the people that make our products and how they are made. Our textiles are handcrafted one yard at a time by this skilled group of artisans.
How did Tharangini Studio and seemakrish collaborate?
Seema was mentored by Lakshmi Srivathsa in the late-90s when she was living in Bangalore while immersed in the knowledge of Indian textile crafts.
It came full circle when in 2011, Seema was establishing her textile brand and was exploring artisan partnerships in Bangalore. When Seema and Padmini met, the timing was perfect as Padmini had relocated from the U.S. in 2007 and had taken over the running of Tharangini from her mother and was exploring new avenues for its future direction. Together, they worked towards developing interior textiles by the yard. Which involved amongst other things- training the craftspeople towards the stringent requirements of the industry in print quality and color, and widening the printing tables from the standard 48” sari widths to 60” for upholstery textiles.
It’s been a gratifying partnership and friendship.
The studio has grown to a total of twenty-five artisans from the original four. Additionally, they’ve grown to nine printing tables from the original two.
All of this in the last eight years!
It has included a lot of learning, trial, and error, with a lot of fun and laughter thrown in!
Q & A with Padmini Govind
Padmini, how did you get involved with block printing and crafts?
Inspired by my mother, and her journey with textiles and block-printing which started in the 70s.
I have been surrounded by artisans amidst our home studio since I was in elementary school. After my mother passed away, it was a decision based on passion and sentiment to take this forward and continue the Tharangini studio.
What is your favorite part about your job?
The different people I meet, both designers and artisans.
How do you see Tharangini evolving in the years ahead?
We continue to focus on our sustainability objectives, which is primary to sustain the handcraft and the artisans supporting it. We hope to bring in more women artisans into this male-dominated craft tradition.
In today’s world, there is more awareness of organic, sustainable, low-waste practices. Ethically run studios have a big role to play with conscious consumers. These have been our founding values forty-three years ago and we intend to continue forging ahead.
Through our outreach and training efforts into the Autism communities, our goal is to establish a women-oriented block print unit, helmed by specially-abled artisans.
What has been most gratifying about your job?
The social impact on our artisan families.
What is your ‘rule of thumb’ in life?
Never compromise on values and ethics.
What is something about you that people are surprised to learn?
That I am an ex-engineer with several years of working with technology companies in Fintech, Media, and Defense.
What is your favorite place in Bangalore?
The flower market and the old world shops in Malleswaram, which is a historic neighborhood of Bangalore with ancient temples and steeped in culture and also has wonderful eateries! On every visit, you discover something new, sensory overload for sure!
What do you do for fun?
Being a foodie, I enjoy new restaurants and especially enjoy good Mexican cuisine!
How many cities have you lived in?
I’ve lived in six cities.
Milwaukee, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, Dallas and Bangalore.
What is your favorite seemakrish textile?
Worli
Padmini and her team share our core values and mission to create sustainable and ethically made block-printed textiles and preserve traditional craftsmanship.
In our conversation with Padmini, she shares the valuable work they have done for their community, as well as the challenges the workshop is facing in navigating the current crisis and how we can provide support.
We have created a GoFundMe campaign with a $25,000 fundraising goal to support this dedicated group of 25 artisans of Tharangini Studio.
We hope you care about the future of sustainability and preserving heritage Indian crafts as much as we do.
We appreciate any contribution that you can share with this valuable cause.
Please click on the link below get to our GOFUNDME campaign
We thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
