nafaskāri
Kalamkari cloth laid across grass at golden hour
Artisans drawing outlines on cotton with a kalam Shiva holding a kalam and a pipette
నఫస్ కారి nafaskāri

by vibhuti amin

A regenerative material innovation framework for climate-resilient craft futures.

NAFASKĀRI: REIMAGINING KALAMKĀRI WITH MICROBIAL DYES

a film by The Ruta Films

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Meaning breath work, Nafaskāri is an invitation to slow down: to breathe, repair, and return.
We work with endangered craft communities to cultivate pigments from bacteria in local soils: a climate-resilient tool for the next generation of artisans.
An artisan painting indigo into a kalamkari peacock panel

c r a f t

Kalamkāri: "work of the pen"

takes its name from the kalam, the bamboo pen used to hand-paint designs onto cloth. Rooted in South India, the practice evolved over 3000 years through a dialogue between artisan, land and river. The craft uses a 17-step process of natural dyes, mordants, river minerals and sunlight to create colour by hand. 

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A kalam pen drawing a fine outline Cloth being washed by hand

the first mass fashion

These painted textiles later became known as chintz, a globally coveted Indian textile that shaped the development of European textile printing and industrialisation. Today, Kalamkari is an endangered craft, threatened by environmental change, declining access to traditional materials and the erosion of craft knowledge. Nafaskāri asks how microbial pigments can become part of this evolving tradition.

The communities most impacted by extractive design have been excluded from shaping its direction.

Céline Semaan

Forensic timeline

what happened to the colour?

Drag the slider. The forces acting on Srikalahasti Kalamkari appear as they arrive, from a closed natural-dye loop to a synthetic one. Click any event to read its source.
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Flasks of red and dark pigment set in soil beside dyed cloth and a kalam
s c i e n c e
Waste along the bank of the Swarnamukhi river

Polluted river bed:
Swarnamukhi River, Srikalahasti, India

A petri dish of soil bacteria, red colonies on amber agar

indigo is increasingly expensive and resource-intensive to cultivate

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Bacterial-colour palette derived from local soils

chay root is endangered and can no longer grow in Srikalahasti due to polluted soils

bacteria dyes enable climate-resilient cultivation of pigments
they require significantly less water, no land, use and can be grown during any climate

Petri dish of soil bacteria

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acid

base

1. INOCULATE

Drag the swab from the plate down into the flask containing media.

2. GROW

Culture age

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3. HARVEST

4. SHIFT THE COLOUR

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Illustrative simulation. Actual conditions, media and timings are covered by a pending patent.

The Nafas Chamber bioreactor lit against black

Nafas Chamber:

A bioreactor designed to grow Nafaskāri bacterial pigments in low-tech artisan spaces. Maintains temperature for optimal bacterial growth, enables the production of red and blue pigments, automatically replenishes the bacterial culture with fresh media, and ensures sterile, safe dye harvesting.

Made in collaboration with Himanshu Bablani

Capsule collection

coming soon...

@ Stitched Up, Melbourne Fashion Week 2026

Handmade garments with Nafaskāri microbial pigments

Stay tuned...
Artisans holding up a length of drawn kalamkari cloth in a field at golden hour
f r a m e w o r k

place-based innovation

for decolonial textile futures

what would innovation look like if it began from repair, rather than extraction?

The framework is explored in an essay written for Global Fashion Agenda

read the essay
historicise ecologise regenerate nafaskāri CASE STUDY

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The workbook

Decolonial Textile Futures by Vibhuti Amin: A New Framework for Material Innovation

The handcrafted book was printed on recycled khadi cotton and hand-bound with bacterial-dyed linen thread.
back

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Meaningful technological progress demands tools cheap enough to be accessible to virtually everyone, suitable for small-scale application, and compatible with our need for creativity.

 E. F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful
Two nafaskari postage stamps laid on the painted cloth beside an artisan drawing with a kalam

exhibitions & recognition

Shiva holding a kalam and a pipette beneath the nafaskari exhibitions wordmark
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Swarovski Foundation Sustainable Innovation Award 2026

UAL Re:Generating Creativity Graduate Award

Impart x Nalli Silks Fellowship 2026-27

Awards

भारत INDIA · 2026
Two artisans holding a long painted kalamkari cloth open over grass, seen from above
a b o u t
Artisans walking through an orchard at golden hour
Regenerative colour technology, rooted in place

Rooted in the living textile tradition of Kalamkāri, Nafaskāri began by exploring how microbial pigments could support its future in Srikalahasti, India. The project traces Kalamkāri's evolution from hand-drawn, botanical storytelling to its colonial transformation into chintz, the first "mass fashion" and symbol of extraction from the Global South.

Today, climate change, industrialisation and the loss of traditional materials threaten the craft's continuity. Nafaskāri responds by developing regenerative colour technologies: cultivating microbial pigments from local soils as a climate-resilient alternative to synthetic and increasingly vulnerable botanical dyes.

An artisan holding open a long painted kalamkari cloth in a field

Nafaskāri is developing tools and processes that can be adapted within different craft communities, working with artisans to explore how living colour systems can respond to the ecological conditions of their own places. Rather than replacing traditional knowledge, the technology is designed to grow alongside it: supporting craft continuity, ecological regeneration and new forms of material practice.

Meaning "breath work," Nafaskāri asks fashion to slow down: to breathe, repair and return. It imagines a colour system shaped not only by human innovation, but by microbes, soils, ecosystems and the communities who care for them.

Vibhuti Amin working at a field bench with flasks and sample tubes

A material researcher and designer working at the intersection of chemistry, craft, and climate justice. Amin's practice bridges scientific inquiry with cultural and ecological knowledge, using material innovation to reimagine fashion systems in the face of the climate crisis.

Her work examines how extractive practices within the fashion and textile industries disproportionately impact marginalised communities.

Rooted in Indian craft and textile traditions, she collaborates with artisan communities to explore how heritage knowledge and biodesign can inform regenerative material innovation.

credits

the Nafaskāri textile piece was made using bacterial dyes, myrobalan yellow, and cotton fabric.

Painted by artisans at the Kalamkari Research & Training Centre, Srikalahasti, India

Dr. Jonallagadda Niranjan
Tejasvini
Sameera
S. Sunita
T. Subhashini

Stitched by tailors at House of Rare Corporate Office, Bengaluru, India

Prathibha.EM
Srinivas.C
Muniyappa.V

Film & bioreactor

Film by The Ruta Films
Bioreactor made in collaboration with Himanshu Bablani

Scientific research

Supported by Dr Raju Mukherjee @ IISER Tirupati & Dr Anki Reddy @ IIT Tirupati, Grow Lab @ Central Saint Martins London

Funding

Swarovski Foundation Sustainable Innovation Award
Impart x Nalli Silks Fellowship 2026–27