After months of backaches and chipped nails, experiments that 27 year-old architects Smita Khanna and Swati Salgaocar undertook, converge in NOte, an exhibition of products made by setting dried leaves and seeds in polyester resin

24"x18"x14" resin-on-resin lamp (Rs 40,000)

"We tried working with everything from stainless steel to ceramics," says Swati Salgaoncar, an architect with a degree from Yale and Columbia, admitting that they decided to experiment with resin only around December last year. "We had to collaborate with engineers to ensure that the material would work in the manner we wanted it to," says Architectural Association of London graduate, Smita Khanna.

The two laugh about spending hours combing public gardens in search of dried leaves and seeds, confessing that watchmen would look at them with curiosity. "And then, laying out delicate dried leaves in complicated patterns, in liquefied polyester resin was another story altogether. We couldn't cut our nails for months because the work required detailing that you can achieve only is you use your nails," Smita says.u00a0


Architects Swati Salgaocar and Smita Khanna at the
NOTE exhibition. Tree of Life bench created by embedding
200 dried leaves and 232 mother of pearl beads (Rs 65,000)

A table created with resin sheets, embedded with painstakingly-laid-out red sandalwood seeds, evidences the duo's tale. Created with sheets that Swati explains "present a positive image on one surface, and a negative on the other," the teak wood table is priced at Rs 70,000. Screens, lamps, coffee tables and benches adorned with organdie, shell and silk patterns are pieces you'll find at the exhibition. Though the design concept is common, each piece is designed uniquely, with some patterns involving single layering, others created using multiple layers. A hexagonal table with six resin sheets designed using a kilo each of brass and steel rings laid out in a spiral pattern costs Rs 80,000. Pieces in which the duo have worked using just resin, are more economical. The Peacock Bench designed with four sheets of resin emblazoned with coloured peacock feathers costs Rs 45,000.

At ICIA, The Institute of Contemporary Indian Art at Rampart Row, Kala Ghoda
Till: July 31.
Call: 22022846