Nelly Sethna

Nelly Homi Sethna (née Mehta; 1 November 1932 – 1992) was an Indian weaver, textile designer, researcher, writer and a crafts activist.

[2] Her close association with Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay played an important role in the revival and promotion of traditional Indian crafts.

Following this event, she moved to London in 1954 so as to study textile design and printing at the Regent Street Polytechnic (now, the University of Westminster).

[7] Under the apprenticeship of Strengell, Nelly learned to create ‘self-made’ products which were based on the principles of the Nordic sloyd system.

[2] After Sethna's arrival in India in 1957, Neville Wadia invited her to join the first textile design studio at Bombay Dyeing.

[9] Sethna played an instrumental role in the revival of this craft by creating new design layouts that appealed to the contemporary audience.

[9] Further, she helped the craftspeople exhibit widely and wrote about their practices in her book Kalamkari: Painted & Printed Fabrics from Andhra Pradesh (1985).