Meet the designers championing rattan in furniture, decor, and installations

With home design trends veering towards all things earthy and natural, it was only a matter of time before evergreen materials such as bamboo, wood, and cane were brought back into the spotlight. A prominent material seen everywhere from largescale lighting fixtures in commercial establishments to furniture in residential spaces is rattan. The tough material has found fancy among Indian designers who are using its flexible nature to craft furniture, decor artefacts, and installations. We track a few...

With home design trends veering towards all things earthy and natural, it was only a matter of time before evergreen materials such as bamboo, wood, and cane were brought back into the spotlight. A prominent material seen everywhere from largescale lighting fixtures in commercial establishments to furniture in residential spaces is rattan. The tough material has found fancy among Indian designers who are using its flexible nature to craft furniture, decor artefacts, and installations. We track a few...

The Green Collective, Assam

Launched in 2021 by Aakanksha Batra, the decor brand specialises in creating artefacts and furniture from cane/rattan, water hyacinth, pine needles, moonj grass, bamboo, etc. Crafted by artisans in the North East and Uttarakhand, the design studio’s highlights include multi-functional, handcrafted products such as placemats, trays, storage baskets, lanterns, among others. “The brand is driven by artisans who are part of the journey from seed to sea, from those who harvest the cane, to those who transport it to the city, and especially those who eventually create the pieces,” says the founder, whose rattan edit launched for Diwali last year was the brand’s “first full experiment combining rattan with metal”. It comprised a bar set, a pair of cake knives, a trio of cheese knives, metal napkin rings with rattan weaving, and a two-tier fruit/ dessert stand with a metal rod. “We also launched a parallel collection of our bestsellers in black stain–tissue boxes, multi-utility holders, coasters, etc.,” says Batra, who went on to launch  capsule edits in rattan for Valentine’s Day with heart-shaped boxes, a hurricane lantern with a heart centre, and a heart-shaped sun chime.

Batra, 36, believes that one of the biggest USPs of her firm is the community of women artisans. “The effort has been to not just revive and preserve the dying art of caning, but also to motivate and mobilise more women from the cane artisan cluster to be directly involved in creating products for the brand, in what has traditionally been a male-dominated handicraft space. ”Rattan, a renewable vine that grows with the support of forest trees, is used to craft everything from large planters to table decor at The Green Collective. What makes working with rattan unique, besides its earth-friendliness, “is the fact that it can be bent into any shape possible, which is how the same material can be used for making everything from quirky tableware to capacious storage baskets and sturdy furniture,” says Batra, adding that rattan also takes on dyes and colours quite easily, making it a creative material to work with. 

A single piece from rattan can take from a few hours to a few weeks, depending on the size of the product, its design complexity, and weather conditions, she says. “Grasses are challenging to work with, and being natural materials, they have similar issues. For instance, they are normally picked from native forest areas rather than being farmed, and so are quite susceptible to disease or insects. Which is why the post-harvest drying and treatment of these materials is crucial.”

thegreencollective.in 

Makon Home, Manipur