Handicrafts of India

अभिनन्दन from Gaatha

Gaatha project was originally conjured only for researching and documenting the rapid erosion of Indian craft clusters and heritage. However, we soon learnt from the artisans themselves that need was not to do research alone, but to restore ‘pride and serious commercial opportunity’ in their ecosystem. Today Gaatha thus aims to bring the lost respect and wealth back to these beautiful and aesthetically rich Indian handicraft clusters. These researches are important because just like Industrial goods sell on ‘features’, crafts sell on the processes / stories / heritage that go into making them.

We should give crafts a fair chance, someone is right now merrily making something for us, singing a folk song, in a humble house, deep inside India.

Buy: Indian Handicrafts Online
Research & Archive: Indian Crafts

‘Gaatha’ meaning ‘a great story’, has been functioning in the craft sector for over five years now. With its many amazing stories of Indian Handicrafts that have been shared with the audience, Gaatha has been actively supporting the Indian artisan community by providing them a unique platform for their products and unique voices. It’s the transfer of this value-system more than the handicraft itself, which is the objective of the ‘Gaatha’ project.

Above all, we want to identify Handicrafts of India & recognize the faceless artisan all over the world.

A TALE OF CRAFTS
(Indian Handicrafts)
16Aug

Sacred cloth of the Goddess

Mata ni pachedi literally means “behind the mother goddess”, and is a cloth that constitutes a temple of the goddess. When people of the nomadic Vaghari community of Gujarat 
07Aug

Parandi Rangbirangi..!

The land of five rivers, that bravely withstood the attacks of different invaders over centuries, is also
28Jul

Woven Pixels

Patola is one of the most prized and valued textiles. (As described in the earlier post on “Patola” ) It is revered not just for its religious significance across many faiths, but also for the amazing level of skill and perseverance required to make it.
12Jul

A grand monsoon walk

These huge, colourful chariots are drawn by hundreds of devotees, and watched by millions, who believe that seeing the gods in procession expiates them of all sins.
10Jul

Etched in Time – Palm leaf Pattachitra

Even though Talapatrachitra / palm leaf writing preceded paper, many collections of a few hundred years old palm leaf manuscripts survive to the present date, because they are much stronger and tensile than paper.
30Jun

Mirrors, mirrors on the Wall….Mud Relief

Mud relief work is one forte of village dwellers, which they use to decorate their houses. In the great Rann of Kutch, Gujarat, many hamlets have Mud relief walls with the motifs that usually represent their feelings and beliefs.
22Jun

Silken Threads…Mashru weaving

Mashru has characteristic bright contrasting stripes in vibrant colours, instantly uplifting the spirits of a desert traveler. It seems that to make up for the lack of colour in the dry barren deserts, the makers of this fabric put every possible colour together in wonderful, lustrous compositions.
14Jun

Leaving Impressions – block carving

Pethapur village in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, is a hub of wood block makers, who supply customized blocks to the centres of block printing. Wooden block making has been a popular profession among the inhabitants of Pethapur for about 300 years.


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