Step 2 - Share Your Design Brief

‘Deep’, pronounced dheep, in Hindi means lamp. It is a small oval object created with clay and filled with oil and a wick to make a lamp. In her first Manchaha, Shakuntala wasn’t too sure what to do, but very naturally started opening the middle of the carpet. When she was almost halfway, she suddenly felt it would be best to bring everything back otherwise she would run out of ideas. A small variation made all the difference, as the design took the shape of something she associates with quite often and is auspicious. It formed the lamp you see in the carpet and Shakuntala shares, “When you light a lamp, you clear out the darkness and bring in prosperity. This is what my carpet will do in the home.”

Jaya garha which means ‘a small earthen pot over another’ is how Shakuntala describes her rug. She usually keeps a matka near the loom to drink water from it whenever she feels thirsty. She took inspiration from the matka, the exhaust fan in her house, and even her saree to weave designs into her rug. There is a bandarwal (door hanging) which adorns her house gate, she wove patterns from it in her Manchaha.