About the Artist
My journey as an artist has been a long and winding one. I’m still learning, exploring, and playing with these things as I go, looking to master the skills and to master myself. One step forward, two steps backward, missteps, and happy accidents, all serve to help us grow.
Vani Ramachandran
Finding Inspiration
As I reflect on my childhood, one thing comes to my mind: the story of how I learned to knit. I was born into a middle- income family and was brought up by my grandparents in Mumbai, India. I was probably 9 or 10 years old - old enough to know how to create and decorate. My Catholic school, where the nuns were teachers, had a needlework class. I was always excited to attend that class. It was knitting time!
I didn't have the needle or the yarn at first. I would just watch and learn to knit. I didn't want to burden my grandparents, so I would try to be frugal. I didn't know what frugal meant then. One day, I took two broomstick pieces. I cleaned and smoothed them out and used them as knitting needles. For the thread in those days, grocery stores would pack greens in newspaper cones and wrap them with string. Every household saved those strings and had a ball of string. It had enough weight, so I used that as my first yarn. That's how I began my knitting adventure and managed to fashion a belt for myself. After good practice, I received my own proper needle and yarn and was so excited.
Re-imagining Materials
This theme of repurposing materials has stayed with me ever since. My husband was a scientist and would come home with mini test bottles from his various research experiments. I had to fashion a Taj Mahal out of these bottles. Why? Just because! On a road-trip one summer from Georgia to Maryland, we stopped on the side of the freeway so that I could pickup dried roadside weeds. I later turned them into an arrangement for someone’s mantle. One year, I made curtains with some unusually robust material I found. A year later, the curtains were looking tired, so I used them to redo the upholstery for the furniture.
Exploring Forms
In my 30s, I moved with my family to Nigeria, in West Africa for a few years, and taught art in my sons’ school. This was a productive period of exploration for me. To keep things interesting for the kids, I explored all sorts of media. I have tried my hands at knitting, sewing, crochet, embroidery, painting, floral arranging, paper mache, ceramics, upholstery, food carving, and more. Not everything has worked out as I had hoped, but whatever the medium, the source for all this has been the same creative spirit.
Later, in my 40s, after we had settled in America, I started to professionalize. I earned a masters in floral design, worked as a florist, and ultimately became an entrepreneur and business owner. I’ve produced works for hundreds of birthdays, proms, funerals, valentines, and weddings. I’ve counted numerous celebrities, governors, and everyday joyous people as clients. I’ve probably produced over 20,000 floral arrangements!
Making Connections
As a florist, I was a walking ad. I got bored of wearing the same thing to work everyday, so I started making clothes with flowers sewn or heat-sealed onto them. I started adding jewels to some of these clothes. That led to an interest in beading. Bead work is an ancient art, which continues to this day.
A few years ago, while decorating for Christmas, I found myself gazing upon a set of beaded votives on a table. The glow of the light through the votives was amazing. I unwrapped the beads in the votive and tried my hand on a bracelet design. It came out surprisingly well and I have been designing jewelry ever since. Most recently, I started making dolls, drawing upon themes of goddesses from Indian mythology. Doll-making brings together a vast number of my prior skills – sculpture, fashion design, jewelry, painting, embroidery, crochet, etc. It's not the end of my story, just the most recent step. I’m excited about what lies ahead.
