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Patchwork Magic: From Scraps to Stories

PORT LOUIS, MAURITIUS --The textile industry is the 5^th largest CO² contributing sector in the United States, yet around 10-20% of the original fabric for each garment turns into cloth waste, sent to be sealed in landfills.

The Magic Fingers Association helps to reduce this waste by turning scrap fabric into patchwork art in Mauritius (as seen in photo 1), where the textile industry is one of the biggest economic sectors. “It’s a drop in the ocean,” Sadhana Ramanjooloo, founder of the association, says as she presents a magnificent, intricately patched quilt before me. “But even that drop is needed to complete the ocean,” she adds with a smile.

Innovation was driven by necessity: Magic Fingers began using recycled fabric because many of the women in the group did not have the means to obtain store-bought fabric.

“Do you see these blue and pink checkered patches?” asks Ramanjooloo as she points to a charming oven mitt (as seen in photo 2). “This tells a story.” One of Ramanjooloo’s first students, Marie Rose, noticed a bag of scrap fabric—originally hotel uniforms—being thrown into a trash bin. Without qualms, she picked out the bag, washed and ironed its contents, and proceeded to create her first patchwork project. It got Ramanjooloo to thinking—could this happen on a larger scale, with waste material provided directly by textile factories?

The Marks & Spencer textile supplier in Mauritius was glad to realize the proposal, which would help them receive an ISO (International Organization for Standardization) certificate for proving that waste was being properly used. In turn, Magic Fingers was the proud recipient of a 2006 NPCC (National Productivity & Competitiveness Council) award for innovation in reducing waste.

“Why waste?” Ramanjooloo asks, while describing the rush of excitement and flurry of creativity when many meters of beautiful, discarded cloth in plastic bags are first unpacked. “We are reviving the dead cotton; we can pump life into fabric which has already been declared useless.”

Magic Fingers is also pumping life into their community by partnering with other organizations and setting up training programs for over 100 unemployed, disadvantaged, and/or disabled women in Mauritius. With assistance from organizations such as the Deutsche Bank, Mauritian Central Bank, and the National Empowerment Foundation (among others), the group and its facilities are growing quickly while many women are learning skills for a new source of income.

“If you keep a little knowledge of art to yourself, it doesn’t go anywhere,” Ramanjooloo points out, “but if you share it, it multiplies. What is truly permanent is invisible.” In the end, Ramanjooloo hopes Magic Fingers gives women a chance for their creativity to soar, while joining people and fabric from all backgrounds. With a bright smile and an air of encouragement, she turns to her co-director, Angela Moutou, and remarks, “You know, we can fly. The limitations are only in the mind.”

Magic Fingers is planning a national patchwork exhibition next year, and hopes to continue expanding the reach of their organization and training program.

Interested in learning more about the Magic Fingers Association, supporting their training efforts, or purchasing their patchwork art (like those seen in photos 3 & 4)? You can contact them at magicfingers.mu@orange.mu, or visit them in Rose-Hill, Mauritius if you are lucky enough to journey to this delightful island in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

Photos 1-4 courtesy of Nikhil Ramburn