Saratoga News Kavita Singh models a sample of the wearable art she will display at the Celebration of Craftswomen in San Francisco. Saratogan shows scarves in S.F. art show By Shari Kaplan While aficionados of the creative arts spend time defining the catchy, modern term "wearable art" in written terms, Saratoga resident Kavita Singh spends her time defining it in a truly definitive way--she makes it. A prolific designer of hand-painted fine silk scarves, Singh is the only representative of the Saratoga and Los Gatos area among more than 280 women from a myriad of artistic and cultural backgrounds participating in San Francisco's 20th annual Celebration of Craftswomen, which continues for its second weekend Dec. 12-13 in the Herbst Pavilion inside the Fort Mason Center at Buchanan Street and Marina Boulevard. Including ceramics, jewelry, toys, dolls, furniture, photography, wood- and metal-work, wearable art and other mediums, the Celebration of Craftswomen is the largest juried women's crafts fair in the United States. Food, refreshments and live entertainment are also part of the event. A native of India, Singh says she knew she wanted an artistic career by the time she was 10 or 11 years old. She enjoyed drawing and was attracted to textiles and colorful clothing, such as the traditional saris worn by her family. After graduating from India's New Delhi Polytechnic for Women, she relocated in Paris and found a job as an apprentice in a textile design studio. While in France, Singh discovered gutta, the French glue she often uses to draw outlines on silk scarves. After she is satisfied with the gutta designs, Singh fills them in using a brush dipped in different color dyes. Singh also uses other techniques for hand-painting other fabrics, as gutta usually limits artists to natural fabrics such as silk and cotton. Before settling in Saratoga with her husband and two sons, Singh also lived for a time in Malaysia, where she studied Chinese and Japanese brush painting and Asian art. Some of these art forms have turned up in her fabric painting--she is not limited to just scarves--and her professional design projects. In these other capacities, Singh has worked for a handful of companies as a designer of products such as wallpaper, upholstery, clothing lines and ceramics. She is now her own boss and concentrates mainly on turning scarves and other garments into uniquely beautiful wearable art. Admission to the 1998 Celebration of Craftswomen is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors, and is free to children under 12. Group and weekend discounts are available. Proceeds benefit San Francisco's Women's Building, the first women-owned and operated nonprofit female community center in the United States. For more information, call 415/252-8981. [ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Saratoga News, December 9, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.