Colleen Clines
[2010, Master of Landscape Architecture]
Based in Louisville, KY
Anchal (on-chal) believes design can change lives. As a social enterprise, Anchal uses design thinking to create innovative products and sustainable employment for exploited women worldwide.
Anchal’s designs explore the synthesis of vernacular imagery, heritage artwork and a maker’s journey to empowerment. The contemporary graphic designs are defined by sophisticated patchwork and aggregated stitch patterns, revolutionizing traditional kantha quilting techniques. Anchal’s home goods and accessories are entirely hand-stitched by Anchal’s 130 artisans in Ajmer, India with layers of the softest GOTS certified organic cotton since 2010. All of Anchal’s heirloom quality pieces are artfully crafted with the highest quality and attention to detail.
Tell us about some of your main sources of inspiration.
Coming from a background in Landscape Architecture, I am still constantly inspired by the urban environment. When I am feeling stuck or uninspired, I walk the trails of local parks or neighboring streets and consciously look for things I normally overlook. This practice also translates into my time in India when I am working alongside Anchal’s artisans. Together we challenge ourselves to look at our surroundings through a different lens. This can be anything from the siding on a building to flowering trees to the earth that we walk on. The results are captured in photographs and become the inspiration for our textile-based products.
Is there a work/body of work that you are particularly excited about sharing with us at RISD Craft this year?
We started Anchal with a dream that the brave women of Anchal could become designers. That dream is now a reality. The Curve Collection is the first series completely inspired by an Anchal artisan’s design – from photographs to textile art piece to the final quilt and complementary pillows. The Curve Quilt originated through the lens of artisan Seema and a view of an ordinary rooftop in India.
The results culminated in a bold modernist composition with layers of 100% organic cotton and activated by a radiating stitch pattern. The Curve Quilt and coordinating pillows bring Anchal’s mission full circle by encouraging the artisan’s creative confidence to express their personal identities through fabric while creating unique works of art that tell the story of empowerment and change.
Any recent press, exhibitions, achievements or awards you’d like to share with us?
Anchal will be launching a special collaboration with the Guggenheim Museum Store this Fall. We were invited to design a collection of quilts, scarves, and bags inspired by the incredible abstract paintings of Hilma af Klint. The exclusive Guggenheim x Anchal will launch alongside the special exhibition of Hilma af Klint’s work in October 2018.
