The company works with artisans skilled in Rabari embroidery, which originated in Rajasthan and Gujarat in the 14th century. (This is the kind of fabric that shimmers with tiny mirrors.) And it employs one of the last remaining masters of Bela hand-block printing, a once-robust industry practiced in an Indian village of that name, which has been crushed by more economical machine printing.
A powerful example of the merger of old and new could be seen last year in Ms. Dudhat’s contribution to the Indian Ocean Craft Triennial in Perth, Australia. Inspired by 70 years of temperature data collected by Ed Hawkins, a British climate scientist, she worked with a team of 65 Rabari artisans to create a seven-panel work titled “HOPE.”
The tapestry’s base layer featured Bela block printing, with Ms Dudhat’s design evoking the portion of the Saran River that once ran in that village but dried up amid warming temperatures. The second layer was stitched with Sujni embroidery from the state of Bihar, where the population faces an elevated risk of flooding. The third layer shimmered with tiny Rabari mirrors, reflecting the work’s viewers, all implicated in the crisis.
Priya Khanchandani, a curator who organized “The Offbeat Sari”, a 2023 exhibition at the Design Museum in London, noted that Morii Design’s modern motifs were an audience pleaser in India as well as abroad.
“There is a misconception that Indians have tastes that are rooted in a timeless ‘village’ craft aesthetic but this isn’t necessarily the case,” she said in an email. “A contemporary Indian design aesthetic is very much alive, helped by the fact India has a young population and is a fast-moving economy.”
Suchi Reddy, a New York City architect who was born and raised in Channai, India, said in a phone interview that Indian designers were craft driven by nature. Where she thinks Ms. Dudhat stands apart is in her working model.
“Reaching out to rural craftspeople and giving them a very viable way of earning a living that fits into their lifestyle,” she said, “that is really amazing, I think.”
