Sisters Anvi Shah and Anya Shah least expected that an art activity remembered from Class VII would break the monotony resulting from the pandemic.
Under their brand “Anvy” (a name derived from letters in both their names, and one that suggests the idea of positivity, in Sanskrit), the twins run a tie-and-dye workshop for unprivileged children, for the Sethu Foundation as part of Twinklers.
Twinklers is an initiative by Ladies Circle MSLC 133 being run for Daan Utsav.
Last year, during the lockdown, the twins rediscovered tie-and-dye art they had learnt in school, and had tried it out on napkins and on their father’s t-shirts.
“The first couple of times we tried it, the results were horrible. We would have spoiled five tees as either the tying was not done properly or the pattern was not right,” say the Class IX students of Sishya.
Tie and Dye t-shirt
After having mastered the art by trial and error, they conducted a workshop for the children at their street in Kilpauk. It filled them with the confidence to start Anvy which has sold more than 250 tie-and-dye t-shirts in the last one year.
To be launched on October 6, the workshop is expected to run for two to three weeks. The sisters will be launching a website soon and adding new products under the brand.
Sethu Lakshmi C J, managing director, Sethu Foundation, says 60 children in the age group of eight to 12 years will be part of the tie-and-dye workshop. “They are part of our project “Chetna for children” where various creative classes are being conducted on a regular basis,” says Sethu. The plan is to get the children design 1000 t-shirts that will be put up for sale post-Deepavali and the proceeds from the sale would go towards supporting the Foundation. “Anyone can visit our centre at Teynampet when the workshops are happening to place their order or place an order through our Instagram page,” says Sethu, adding that the Foundation wants children to use this skill to improve the art and earn money through the process.
Follow their Instagram handles: anvya.official and sethu_foundation
To learn how to be a part of Daan Utsav, which is celebrated from October 2 to 8, visit daanutsav.org
