Bilgrami describes her close relationship with the remarkable deep blue dye below:

"Liquid yellow-green turns to blue. Blue, growing from the palest shade to the deepest, indescribably beautiful blue  - totally magical. Since my first encounter quite by chance when I stumbled upon it, till today, that particular blue dye, Indigo, has been an integral part of my work and life as a designer and artist.

Indigo, or Nir, the fabled dye grew on the banks of the River Indus from the time of the Indus Valley Civilization dating back to 2,500 BC.  Extracted from the leaves of the plant, Indigoferra Tinctoria, indigo became the most valued dye.  

But, by the early twentieth century, synthetic indigo flooded world markets, selling for less than half the cost of natural indigo which it eventually replaced. With the decline in demand for natural dyes, the cultivation of indigo was abandoned.

In 1996, at KOEL, my atelier, I took on the challenge of reintroducing natural indigo and other natural dyes. Thus a pilot project was initiated to cultivate indigo and extract the dye through traditional methods at Miani Forest in Sindh. The experiment was successful.  KOEL developed a line of silk and cotton handloom textiles, dyed with natural indigo and an array of natural dyes, for both local and export markets. 

For over nine years, KOEL’s handloom natural dyed textiles have created a popular niche market in Pakistan and are exported to leading selective designers abroad. Through sensitive intervention, new designs have been and are being developed within the framework of the traditional design repertoire. The interlinking of traditional skills is restoring the harmony that had been lost to 'progress' and mechanization in the last century. 

Furthermore, as a painter I also welcome the constant challenge of working with indigo dye on paper with graphite and mixed media.

The endless possibilities to explore the delicate nuances concealed in the rich, mysterious indigo dye  is a continuous process."