Arts
Sharing a love for twisted strings
“Twisted Shades brought new meaning to our lives. Even though it is a struggle to manage our work and business, it taught us to strive for something better every day,” say Lakshani Jayasiriwardena and Anuhas Jayakody, the artists behind Twisted Shades.
With a shared passion for art and craft, they are among the many artists behind the growing string art trend. But what makes them stand out are the designs that they challenge themselves with.
Started by Mary Everest Boole in the late 19th century as ‘curve stitching’, a way of introducing mathematical ideals among children, and later developed into a decorative craft in the 1960s, it involves coloured embroidery thread, string or wire being wound around nails hammered on a wooden board to create a pattern.
Lakshani, a teacher at Methodist College and Anuhas who works as an engineer at a private firm dubbed their venture Twisted Shades – ‘twisted’ for the twisted strings around the nails and ‘shades’ for the range of colours incorporated. Having started almost a year ago, the two artists have done some challenging designs such as the famous ‘Mayura Raksha’ ves muhuna.
“The mask we did was a customer request and it took us up to two months to finish as we had to work after hours,” they say, showing us wedding designs, the Sri Lankan flag, photo frames and many other complex creations they offer.
“The 34 piece bulk order we did for a corporate event was the most memorable and challenging. It was the first time we worked on such a large order within a limited time of six days. But we had a lot of support from our families and somehow completed the order on time,” says Anuhas.
The business which currently caters mainly to customer requests, operates solely through online social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook, adding to the growing small businesses in the country.
From little pictures -5 inches to 12 inches in width and up to 60 inches in length, they cost from Rs. 1000 to 7000 depending on the size and complexity.
“Doing this form of art has taught us that cultivating patience can take us a long way to create beautiful things and that the world is full of twisted shades. So we put our heart and soul into all the designs we work on. Every art work has its own story. Sometimes we work all night to meet deadlines. But we always accept it as a challenge to grow,” they say enthusiastically.
For more visit https://www.facebook.com/TwistedShades/ on Facebook or @twistedshades on Instagram.