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

Indian craft documentation


Discover: How can we truly understand a product or artwork without knowing its stories and iconography? So, we begin by documenting from the heart, to learn more about ourselves and our connection to everything around us…
Research & Archive – Gaatha.org


Shop: After documenting the craft, we carefully design and handpick masterpieces. Every piece we curate is rooted in authenticity, with care that the benefits flow back to the makers, so they can keep creating, and we can keep admiring, again and again.
Shop online – shop.gaatha.com

What is the meaning of Gaatha?

‘Gaatha’ means a great story. For us, it is the story of the hand and the act of crafting—an act that has played a vital role in developing ‘civil-ness’ within any civilization. The ancient practice of crafting is almost always a reflection of its time… and at times, it is powerful enough to make time itself reflect it.

Gaatha has been working in the craft sector for over 15 years, actively supporting the Indian artisan community by providing a unique platform for their products and voices. It is the transfer of this value system—more than just the handicraft itself—that lies at the heart of the ‘Gaatha’ project.

Above all, we aim to identify and recognize the faceless Artisan.

A TALE OF CRAFTS

(A Blog on Indian Handicrafts | Since 2009)

10Jul
Craftsmen, Process, Tale

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.
4 mins read
20898 Views
30Jun
Process, Tale

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.
4 mins read
16026 Views
22Jun
Process, Tale

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.
4 mins read
18902 Views
14Jun
Process, Tale

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.
4 mins read
16931 Views
04Jun
Process, Tale

Spinning scrap to strings

The fundamental of rope making is twisting of fibres together. The twisted ropes are made in a ropewalk, which is any long space where lengths of rope can be laid out side by side.
4 mins read
15311 Views
17May
Process, Tale

A picture is worth a thousand words…

these artists draw and paint the entire scene in its full grandeur in amazing detail and fineness on a small canvas, for the king to keep as a memory of the event. These were the exquisite Miniature paintings of Rajasthan in the 16th Century, the incredibly detailed enchanting visual narratives of royal festivities
5 mins read
21920 Views
13May
Process, Tale

Budni Lacquer Craft

This is Budni Ghat, where soft wood spins on the lathe from morning to twilight, metamorphosing into beautiful objects and shapes. The Budni craftsmen, who have been practicing the craft for generations, belong to the Vishwakarma community.
3 mins read
16310 Views
06May
Process, Tale

Voyage Across Time

The enterprising spirit of the Kutchhi navigators and traders had resulted in the development of five ports, Mandvi, Mundra, Jakhau, Lakhpat and Koteshwar in the Kutchh region. The port was also used as a summer retreat by the rulers of Kutchh.
4 mins read
17174 Views
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