Neera treats Indian woodblock printing as a living tradition rather than a historical artefact. She designs her own blocks, carved by craftspeople in India, and has taught at the V&A, the British Museum, Somerset House, the National Trust and Pitzhanger Manor. In 2025 she was commissioned by the British Museum for "Ancient India: Living Traditions."

Nidhi Uppal's live draping moves across regional sari traditions, showing how a single length of cloth is folded and worn in many different ways, and how each carries its own meaning depending on where, and by whom, it is worn. For Nidhi the sari is both a garment and a form of identity, shaped by everyday life, celebration and migration. Her recent sessions at the Design Museum, connected to The Offbeat Sari, brought that thinking to a wider audience.

Nita brings a lifetime of lived knowledge of Indian textiles, embroidery and handloom traditions. Her talk places Phulkari, Banarasi silk, Kutchi mirror work, Kantha and Ajrakh resist dyeing into their cultural and historical context.

Bandhani is a traditional resist tie-and-dye technique practised for centuries across Rajasthan and Gujarat in India. This slow and meditative craft  is one of many that Mansi draws on in her personal and community-based practice, reimagining it in a contemporary setting. Through this work, she seeks to hold together the two currents that run through her life—the richness of her Indian culture and heritage, and the everyday reality of her life in England. 

Kirstie's Red Dress is an internationally exhibited collaborative embroidery artwork, stitched by more than 380 contributors across 51 countries and recognised with a Guinness World Record. She leads a Lambani embroidery workshop ahead of the Red Dress's full appearance at the October festival.

Explore pattern through the practice of foil embossing with illustrators Kush and Manny.

Inspired by the vibrancy of South Asian adornment, design your own motifs and patterns to create a striking hanging decoration.