A tarp of the line museum

The fourth edition of Dharavi Design Museum has roped in local leather tailors to make creations out of tarp

Dharavi Design Museum’s latest collective, The Waterproof Project isn’t an ideal image of a ‘museum’. It could pass off as a pop up store with a makeshift cart, at best. But that isn’t quite how graphic designer Kruti Saraiya looks at it. “It serves the purpose of a museum, because helped the kids in the area start a conversation about their surroundings,” she says.

On the grounds of Maulana Azad School in Dharavi, children happily smile for shutterbugs as they pose with artefacts from their very own ‘museum’. Local potters, carpenters, embroiders and broom-makers from Dharavi pooled in their resources to create over 18 products like duffle bags, laptop sleeves, wallets, tiffin cases, hand bags, mobile pouches — all made by tarpaulin and hence waterproof.

The project was started by co-founders Jorge Mañes Rubio and Amanda Pinatih and was taken over by graphic designer Kruti Saraiya once the duo left for Amsterdam. “It was like a relay race,” says Kruti. “They passed on the baton to me and I decided to take it forward from there. We decided to work with leather makers as monsoon was approaching and we wanted them to experiment with tarpaulin as a medium,” she shares.

After the initial hassles of finding a tailor who would agree to work and experiment with tarpaulin, Kruti and her team decided to go around Dharavi with yards of tarpaulin and handed it over to about 10 leather tailors. “Working with tarpaulin for them was shocking. According to them, it was a very cheap material that they used only to cover their roofs during rains,” she adds.

28-year-old Shiraj Kamal is one of the tailors from Dharavi who decided to take up the tarpaulin challenge and created the products on display. “I had no clue that something would be made out of a material like tarpaulin. Madam got me tarpaulin and told me to make whatever I can. Initially it was difficult, but we eased into it,” he adds.

Ask him about the durability of his products and he says, “These bags and cases are waterproof. I know they will sell because these bags won’t break or tear easily and there is a lot of scope in the market as there is no competition.”

These products are strictly on display as part of the museum as of now, but the makers are open to business, if opportunity knocks.