Shamim, working for a year with a handicraft outlet, Jatra, brings together waste material into useful and decorative craft items like bedspreads, cushion covers and wall hangings.

As a student of arts, Shamim had put together rags so that the final item were decorative panels, which serve as wall hangings. The effect is that of paintings where the coloured rags took the place of colours. This is transferred into handicrafts -- both useful and affordable -- like handbags, notebooks, pencil holders, tissue boxes, table runners and lampshades. As the colours change, with the use of different selection of rags, each creation has individuality. There are 80 women in Barisal who are working on the project. Shamim is trying to get garment factory owners to donate their waste material to Jatra to provide work to the unemployed who stitch on this work in their spare time.

A large bedspread has birds, fish and human figures in bright red, yellow, black and brown with beads, buttons and shells sown on to it. Nakshikantha and buttonhole stitches run all through it. The large figures have been sewn on as appliqué. The cushion covers have the images of butterflies, female figures, boats, fish in yellow, green, red and other earthy colours. Images of starfish, snakes, and boats also decorate the items. This too has cowries and buttons stitched on to them. Stripes, dots and beads have also been included.

The panels contain a mixture of the banal and the exotic such as the snake and the butterfly, along with faces and figures of women. On another panel is a figure of a young woman with a lion in the background. A fish and lizards have been brought in. The next creation presents two girls -- one in a modern form and another representing days gone by. Another panel features goddess Laxmi's feet and the rising sun, presented in a semi-abstract way. Human figures are brought in once more on a room divider with a woman's bloated figure, wearing a necklace and surrounded by tiny forms. It has little motifs stitched on with shells.

A screen print brings in a female face in the profile and a male face facing the viewer. This is in orange, red, black and white. Another has folk poems in the backdrop of russet, with a figure suggested in the forefront. Scattered dots add to the mysterious effect of the composition.

Shamim, who has a bachelor's degree from the Institute of Fine Arts (IFA), Dhaka University, has taken part in five exhibitions, and has won four awards, including the Best Media Award in 1999 from IFA.