BANGALORE: Swarna Rao Makam’s workshop at her residence in Malleswaram is filled with socks, cushion covers, table cloths, crocheted baby caps with detachable flowers of varied colours, hand-embroidered sarees for special occasions and key-chains. She uses the same simple stitches to come up with new patterns, new designs and more articles.
Crochet and hand embroidery are not all that she’s good at. A passion for handwork has driven her to learn everything from tatting, Canadian smocking and machine embroidery to knitting and fabric painting.
“I began learning these from my grandmother when I was seven,” Swarna explains. “Of course, she didn’t know the names of the stitches or did anything fancy. But she knew lots about crafts, and I picked it up.”
When Swarna found herself as a home-maker in a small town in Andhra Pradesh where she had no diversions, she took to expanding her talents in the ample leisure time that she had.
But it was only six years ago that she decided to make her passion financially rewarding for herself as well. And so, through word of mouth, her products have become popular.
“It is very satisfying to be independent financially,” she explains. Swarna takes classes too, on a one-to-one basis. Students come to her to learn many diverse arts like Kasuti and Kutch work, all of which she is adept at. Her students are home-makers who want to do something productive in leisure, and even a working woman comes from office in her lunch break to learn embroidery.
“These arts must be preserved,” Swarna passionately feels. “It’s a pity that there’s a greater demand for hand-made products abroad than in our own country where arts have grown and flourished.”
She teaches students crochet or embroidery for around two to four hours a day, and manages to work for another two hours, improving her own designs and implementing new ideas. When home-making takes up her day, Swarna tries out new designs late at night, when she can work undisturbed, sometimes past midnight. “It’s the passion that counts,” she says, adding, “When you love something, you find a way to do it.”
To contact Swarna Makam, call 9738863399, or e-mail her at swarnaraomakam@gmail.com