From gathering random leaves and flowers in her Idukki village to reaching her first eco-print on material, Soumya Thomas’s journey took no less than six years of dedication and experimentation. With no formal coaching or mentors to information her, Soumya carved her personal path, pushed by a singular imaginative and prescient: to create one thing actually distinctive. “All I believed was – how can I deliver nature’s prints to material? In the meantime, nothing held me again,” Soumya, the founding father of the style model Elapacha, informed Onmanorama. After amassing leaves and flowers, she started steaming them inside cotton cloths, an try and seize their pure essence.
Soumya’s foray into style design started throughout her school years in Ernakulam, the place she pursued a level in advantageous arts. “I wished to discover style. That’s when the concept of eco-printing first struck me,” she stated. When she began experimenting with the approach in 2016, she didn’t know that eco-printing was already being practised in numerous components of the world. “There wasn’t a set methodology for it, and I had nobody to show to. I simply saved experimenting, following YouTube tutorials, and taking notes alongside the best way,” Soumya remembers.
Rising up within the distant village of Kanayankavayal, Peerumedu, Soumya confronted societal stress to pursue a standard profession like nursing. Nevertheless, her dad and mom supported her ardour for the humanities. “My cousin Sumitha performed a key function in my admission to Thrippunithura RLV School,” she says. After finishing her grasp’s diploma, Soumya taught portray for 4 years earlier than absolutely dedicating herself to eco-printing. “It was throughout my frequent travels between Idukki and Ernakulam that I began noticing the roadside leaves and felt a deep urge to protect their magnificence,” she explains. Her love for leaves started throughout her college days when she first realized about photosynthesis. “It amazed me how leaves may create meals for crops, very like how my mom would put together meals for us at dwelling. That connection deepened my fascination with them.”
Regardless of being ridiculed for amassing leaves, Soumya continued her experiments undeterred. Lastly, after quite a few trials, she achieved her first profitable eco-print in 2022. The unpredictability of the method is what excites her essentially the most. “Nature has its personal method of peculiar us. The color a plant provides in its print doesn’t at all times match with what we see in them in actual life, and that’s the fantastic thing about it,” she says.
Right now, Soumya runs a manufacturing unit in Idukki and a sewing unit in Ernakulam, delivery her eco-printed merchandise to shoppers in Indian cities like Bengaluru, Chennai, and Delhi, in addition to nations like Dubai, the US, and the UK. “My merchandise differ from stoles to saris at costs that vary from Rs 500 to Rs 45,000, and no two prints are ever the identical. Each bit takes no less than 4 days to finish,” she explains. Whereas her most inexpensive objects are made out of malcotton, Soumya emphasises that high quality and individuality come at a value. “I purpose to make eco-printing accessible to as many individuals as doable, however on the identical time, each piece is exclusive, and that takes time and care.”
As demand for her creations grows, Soumya sources leaves and flowers each domestically and past her village. Teak leaves are one of many trendiest supplies, however they aren’t simply accessible now. In the meantime, pine and eucalyptus leaves are fairly in style. Amongst flowers, she favours cosmos, roses, and jamanti, significantly for his or her placing yellow hues. The important thing to eco-printing, Soumya notes, is choosing the proper material. “The fabric must be pure, protein or cellulose-based; like cotton or linen. You may’t print on artificial materials like polyester.” Each bit of cloth requires no less than 4 days of labor, and when stitching is added to the method, it takes even longer.
Regardless of her success in eco-printing, Soumya stays deeply linked to her past love; portray. She has exhibited her paintings in quite a few exhibits, however it’s eco-printing that has change into her signature, mixing artwork, nature, and style right into a kind that’s as unpredictable because it’s enchanting magnificence. Now, with a workforce of over 20 staff, Soumya continues to craft one-of-a-kind materials, remaining true to her inventive roots whereas making waves on this planet of worldwide style.
