This summer, a few friends and I are taking a road trip across the country on a mission to find American success stories. We didn’t have enough money to do it ourselves, so we reached out to our favorite restaurant, The Cheesecake Factory, to see if there was a way to do it in partnership with them, and they enthusiastically agreed to sponsor our trip. What we didn’t realize is that The Cheesecake Factory is also an American success story. Over the course of the trip we will interview artists, craftspeople, entertainers, and entrepreneurs who are dedicated to their work. We aim to highlight a diverse set of talents across a few different regions of the country including the northeast, the midwest, and the west.
Karthika Audinet talked to us about her work with St. Coletta, a DC-based organization that empowers disabled adults to work with textiles and designs. Karthika’s experience with design and industry shows off her fine attention to detail and focus on craftsmanship in each of the high quality artisanal products in St. Coletta’s Collection.
Karthika has two masters degrees, one from the National Institute of Design in India, and another from the ENSCI, the French National School for Advanced Studies in Design. To Karthika, “design is the perfect balance between being artistic and giving meaning to your art,” and she has always been interested in the tiny details. “I was always very interested in what they call savoir-faire, which means the fine craftsmanship. Like if you’re making a cheesecake how do you make that beautiful frill that kind of folds perfectly like that. And the same kind of thing works in textiles. So I kept looking for opportunities to improve my understanding of woven textiles. All of the structures that you have in woven textiles can be very complex.”
She joined St. Coletta because of a desire to have a social impact. She says that St. Coletta wanted her to add some “oomph” to their artisanal crafts. They were working on all sorts of projects, but they didn’t have any cohesive collection. Karthika helped develop the Coletta Collection, which is a full catalogue of artisanal products.
She is currently the creative director, which means two things. “First, I study trends, just like in the industry. I set up trend boards, I direct them, I direct teams to develop prototypes, pricing, and descriptions. I help them with color, texture, what the market wants. On the other hand, I also train.”
A lot of work, time, and attention goes in to each product. “The first month I put trends together. I work out volumes, size, and pricing. With this bag, I cut it out on thick paper. That way I had all the measurements. And once that’s done, then we started developing the colors. Here for example, this, what looks like black, is not a flat color, it’s two colors. It’s a blue and a black.”
“This is the French sensibility of detail. It’s what makes high-end high-end. Then we order yarn, set up warps, and the first prototype is made. We look at it, and say, ‘Are there problems with stitching, volume?’ And it’s only after the first prototype is made that we launch production. It takes a good six months.”
Developing high-end products this way is a win-win, and the participants love it as well. Karthika told us about a particular success story, Nadia. “She’s a lovely person and always happy, always thrilled to be at St. Coletta’s. There’s a sense of community, there’s a sense of purpose, there’s a lot of one-on-one help. She gets fits, so sometimes she has to wear a helmet. So for her we have set up a small table loom. She comes every day to St. Coletta, and she loves it, she gives high fives to everyone, she weaves, and she loves weaving. She participates in our product-making, and tells us ‘This is too dull, I want more color.’”
Here are some pictures from the Coletta Collection catalogue.
You can learn more about St. Coletta’s here, and visit the Coletta Collection online here to see their products.
Interesting,just shows how diverse the world is
A very worthwhile project - happy trails!
Thanks!
Amazing story!
Woow, what a beautiful project, I would like to do it sometime in my life. Maybe in a few years I will try to do that amazing experience .
By the way,I love the Karthika´s story , it makes me think that she works aiming at excellence, and that is how it should be, she studied, prepared well and only so she made known her knowledge, she took a step more than that she could, very good. I think the reason why I love this post is because I'm also a lover of craft work, I do many things, among them I'll show you some photos of some bracelets I made recently.
Thank you for sharing this beautiful story I will be attentive to your next post
I wish you much success
Regards
Thanks!
Well Kerthika have a good knowledge about studies. I have get many points from that story. that the biggest point is that your don't get lose in any hardals .
I think that post should be get some extra likes.
Thanks for that good idea post.
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@dfrankle
nice story. how do you think about all these?
great post. Go ahead.
Amazing and good story!
Some beautiful pieces and beautiful work. I absolutely projects that can impact the world. Great work.
This is nice story of an american.
It motivated me .
Some wonderful pieces and excellent work. I completely extends that can affect the world. Awesome work.
Buena historia! Ayuda a tener perspectiva y fijar los objetivos para superarse!
Great story!
Extraordinary! Cheesecake Factory sponsored you just like that.
Really amazing story!