The Colored Homes of Lambanis

All available space on this Lambani woman’s dress is covered with thread embroidery, chains, buttons, shells, sequins and dangling clusters of silver beads. And to add to this ornamentation, she also has her arms and chin tattooed.

Neither grey hair nor wrinkles diminish the love for heavy ornamentation that make Lambani women distinctive. As this village elder embroiders, the peeling layers of colour on the walls indicate the number of shades of blue, brown and salmon pink that have been used to colour her home.

Lambani women often work in groups, young and old, some dressed traditionally, others in more modern, synthetic saris.

They create a range of items for the winter season, when they set up stalls at a variety of exhibitions and craft bazaars in different cities.

An otherwise simple dwelling where work goes on both inside and outside, would be drab but for the bright, teal coloured outer walls.

Baby goats, handwoven bamboo baskets, and sundry household items, all form part of the ‘workplace’. Embroidery can be done while sitting anywhere and their highly concentrated work carries on in the midst of the hubbub of life.

A Lambani woman in traditional attire, adorned with her ornamental accessories jingling and dangling, works quietly on her embroidery against a bright, teal coloured wall.

Irrespective of having contemporary home accessories like a television or plastic flowers in the vases, a Lambani woman will ensure her walls and her dress are both a mass of vibrant colours and do not subscribe to modern day monochromes and minimalism.

The Lambani community dress their walls in multi-coloured patterns even if the younger women have shed wearing their traditional attire every day.

An interior wall like this in a contemporary home in a city like New York, London, Buenos Airies or Tokyo would make it to the cover of an international design magazine.

The Lambani community in Karnataka love colour and paint their walls entirely for their own pleasure with no design guidance from decorators.

The Lambani community may not invest in furniture or even a cupboard to stack their
clothing, but they will paint their walls in multicolours to lift their spirits.

Here a young embroiderer is embellishing a handloom sari which is probably a part of a special order from a store or an individual client.

Lambani homes are small. Women work outdoors for better light even in very hot weather.

The tiny house with corrugated tin sheets for roofing have colourful walls lovingly painted in vivid pink with white patterns edging the doorways and windows.

Even families that have moved into a more contemporary mode of life and dress, bring colour into homes which may be more formally constructed with industrial materials.

It is hard for the Lambani community to shed their passion for vivid colours even if it is restricted to pillars as seen here.

Read more about the Lambanis and their colourful embroidery traditions here:

- Nomad embroideries flourish amidst stone
- Creating rhythms with needle and thread