Nirmalaben was born in Sumrasar Sheikh, to parents who migrated from Nagar Parkar, Pakistan, in 1972. She left school after 5th grade because she didn’t like reading and had trouble writing. Nirmalaben learned embroidery from her mother when she was 10, and she had no trouble with that. The only daughter of her family, she sat with her mother and friends to embroider all day. She began working with Kala Rakasha almost immediately and won the prize for highest earner in the Trust three years in a row. Through Kala Raksha, Nirmalaben has attended exhibitions in Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad. She also participated in design workshops taught by Nita Thakore and Krishna Patel. Nirmalaben believes that new designs and colours are good for sale, as well as for one’s own work. Embroidery has been with us from the beginning, she says. Today, it is both art and livelihood. Practical, Nirmalaben says that the options for earning for women in her community are limited to embroidery, so it occupies them. Further, she feels that the work for dowry is of little use; it is shown for one day and kept in a trunk. Thus girls are opting for more suf work in their trousseaus, simply because it is less time consuming than the more prized kharek work. Nirmalaben has few desires. Kala Raksha Vidhyalaya, she hopes, will enable her to learn something useful for new design.

After graduating, Nirmalaben has participated in workshops to develop new products based on Kala Raksha’s museum collections. She represented KRV artisans at the launch of the label Artisan Design in Delhi in 2011.