The gold in marigold

When a hibiscus dies and bleeds the extract is a parrot green Rupa Trivedi founder of Adiv Pure Nature a natural dyeing unit housed in Andheri says That was the beauty that we discovered What is it going to become and how does it open I was surprised when we did the first dye of coconut and it turned out to be a nice old rose pink colourIn her cabin Trivedi is in the foreground of a row of 13 muted pastelshaded scarves each of which she introduces as Coconut and marigold coconut and onion peel of pomegranate bark of tree marigold and madder red and so on The scarves like temple garlands carry flora in their body and blessings in their soul For their raw material is sourced from the home of Mumbais favourite godInitially Rupa Trivedi received only marigolds from the temple But Ganeshas favourite flower hibiscus nudged her to experiment with its many hues PicShadab KhanAt Siddhivinayak Temple on a Monday morning a flower seller tries to make five bucks with clumps of hibiscus hitched to a few blades of durva grass Inside a row of stalls selling malas and modaks turn the place into a perfumery Devotees are lining up with offerings and prayers while Dattatray Sayaji Gargote a 35yearold fabric stocker at Adiv makes his way to the back room Every alternate day Gargote picks up 300 kilos of hibiscuses and marigolds at the end of his pilgrimage On the cab ride to Andheri he tells us I like this work Subahsubah bhagwan ka darshan hota hai People travel distances to do that I get to do it three times a weekAt Adiv the fresh flowers are segregated and dried on different decks as Trivedi clad in a black kurtapyjama and scarf of her own making takes us through the budding stages of her workshop The first 25 years of her working life Trivedi 60 was involved with the family business of ulstrasonic equipment In 2005 after her daughter moved to the US she became an empty nester Probably I needed another baby So my little obsession became a conscious passion Her original idea was to work with artisans who were already experts in natural dyes and weavingI travelled to villages with a weaving tradition but I had no background no network in textiles So I was met with a pinch of salt as expected And this was in 2005 when artisanal and khadi were not magic words My idea had been to tone it colours and craftmanship down to meet the Western palate So I was trying to change them and I realised only later that creative artistry also has a lot of resistance As a result the quality did not match my expectations I got fabric from a wellknown natural dyeing unit in Ahmedabad and the colour started bleeding How was I going to give that to my European buyer I had to do somethingSo Trivedi rolled up her sleeves and got her hands dirty in her kitchen Not knowing how to dye was my best teacher I had no boss and there were no parameters I was following I researched the Internet and borrowed a book on shibori and natural dyes I still have the Xerox copy of that book And this girl who had joined as a parttime helper would watch me at workShe went home and used her mothers kumkum That was one of our first pieces After experimenting with known natural dyes such as madder root myrabellum and pomegranate peel Trivedi came across a seed of information that in Mexico they use marigold too I stay close to the sea and I used to see flowers dumped into the water body The pollution that it was creating was enough to shake me up Of course now Afroz Shah environmentalist is cleaning up the beaches But there was something that I wanted to do back then So I started my rounds of the templesIn 2011 Siddhivinayak as it does for so many others answered her prayers My idea was to recycle whatever I could get my hands on But working with a small bag of flowers is not a viable project When the Siddhivinayak Trust approved of my decision to take their discarded flowers the journey of the temple flowers began in earnest It changed shade from being just a hobby to becoming a commercial project In the last few years Adiv has grown in scale and experimentation I try dyeing anything that can be thrown into a dye Where I succeed where I dont is left to fate Initially we sourced only marigold But the main flower offered to Ganesha is hibiscus So we worked to get more tones out of it This was followed by coconuts roses onion peels even rusty nailsMarigolds darken as they dry and produce a mustard yellow shade A Temple Project scarf made from marigold petalsThe flowers go through 24 processes before being transferred onto fabrics Adiv is divided into a dyeing unit and a garments unit Once the blushed fabrics are ready theyre wheeled next door to become quilts cushion covers canvases and scarves which are shipped to international labels such as Anthropologie Dosa by Christina Kim and Eileen Fisher People started seeking me out For Trivedi what continues to be exciting is flowers showing their true colours Recently her experiments with organic marigolds threw up quite a different shade As she says Theres no standardisation here because each flower has its own colour content Natural dyes are mercurial24No of processes the flowers undergo before being transferred onto fabricsAfter being steamed on low heat to release organic colour the fabric unfurls to reveal a dyed clothIn the process of bundle dyeing petals are placed on a length of fabric and bound tightly together with string PicsSneha KharabeCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates