HANDICRAFTS
The immensely attractive, creative and imaginary art made by humans on earth and found mostly in part of poor or labor class people across the Globe, yet India is the most famous country among the handicrafts items due to its centuries of evolutionary tradition, historic culture, famous stone crafted monuments, war swords and many more. Handicrafts, the word itself defines the meaning “crafts made with hand tools”. Mostly the objective is to make creative items which can be useful, decorative, ancient, fashionable human wear or advancing to technology using hand tools. The materials used in the product making are either natural, industrially processed or maybe recycled. Craftmans are mostly of traditional and cultural heritage in their ideas, forms, materials and work ways with their own values, philosophy of life, fashion and self-image and depend on their manual skills rather than machines.
India on the other hand consecrated with skilled people regarding handicrafts. Due to talented hard workers they have increased the caliber of Indian handicrafts around the world.
The Indian handicrafts industry has a huge number of artisans around 6.8 million artisans and more than 50,000 export companies, who endorse regional art and craftsmanship in domestic as well as global markets. These craftsmans are generally women and other labor class people of the rural area of India, who earn their livelihood from their creative pieces of art and this way Indian government also supports, guides, and enhances to up bring their talent by selling the demanding handicrafts item.
Some of the famous handicrafts we would like to share with you:
- Pashmina Shawls
Pashmina is one of the famous type of wool and are found in the northern part of India mostly in Kashmir where these shawls are fine type of cashmere wool first woven in Kashmir and transported later to Srinagar for further process these are hand crafted which includes combing, spinning, weaving and then finishing making the final product carried out all by hands mostly consisting of women. Pashmina fabric production can be found mostly in old district parts of Srinagar. The near about craft time taken for manufacturing a single Pashmina shawl is 180 hours. They are wonderful and can be bought in different colors and designs as per trend and have creatively stitched with beautiful embroidery on them and at the same time can keep you warm and are also known for their softness of the shawl.
- Pottery
Pottery is unique for its creativeness and used for storage being the most charismatic form of all arts. The harappan civilization era had a trend making of handmade pottery and it has been carried still in India. Northern part of India is also known for different kinds of pottery designs, sensual colors like orange, brown, light red, black and dark red in parts of Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. Bikaner (Rajasthan) is highly known for its painted pottery known as Pokhran, with its unique pottery with geometrical patterns and Alwar for its Kagzi pottery, whereas jaipur has its own color of blue pottery. The artisans who make pottery are known as potter who have they remarkable name and a unique position in the craft traditions of India.
- Leather
Times of ancient history has developed convention skill in India for making leather products. The leather craft tradition has a sensual history carried since the Indus Valley civilization. Earlier, Artisans were skilled at making and designing clothes, footwear caps, bags, horse saddles, shield etc of leather. India is renowned and well known for selling leather products worldwide. Madhya Pradesh leather being the leather craft leader makes exquisite yet attractive and items such as shoes, bags, garments etc. are the top selling items where as Maharashtra is also famous for its remarkable leather footwear called Kolhapuri chappals.
- Jute
Jute craftsmen have created a international recognized position in the making of jute handicrafts. The vide variety of jute handicraft crafted are stationary items, men’s and women’s jewellery, bags, bangles, footwear, wall-hangings and many more. India has been a centralized attraction for jute handicrafts and people from all over the world visit the jute handicrafts fairs to buy these aesthetic work of jute bags .West Bengal, Assam and Bihar, being the leading jute producers, have majority of manufacturing the jute handicrafts in India.
- Shell
Shell handicrafts had always been a demanding crafts in India, mostly 3 types of shell crafts are used and crafted in India which are conch shells, tortoise shell and sea shell, mostly these kind of handicrafts are found and made near the sea shore areas in India like goa which is also a tourist attractive and is favorable to visit, odisha and gulf of mannar and many areas across India which are handcrafted into different varieties and are affordable to buy at cheap costs.
- Bamboo
Handicrafts made by using bamboo are the most environment friendly crafts made in India. The numerous items crafted from bamboo are home and office based furniture, baskets, toys, mats, wall-hangings, jewellery boxes and many more. The majorly states that enhance and create bamboo items are West Bengal, Assam and Tripura.
- Bidri
Bidar is the centre for the manufacture of these unique metal handicrafts, where it has concreted its name as ‘bidriware’ due to its well known, distinctive, prominent striking artwork and the metal used. This metal is a blackened alloy with a mixture of copper and zinc with fine sheets of pure silver. This is one of the most renowned south Indian handicrafts export and is commonly prized as a symbol of wealth in many places across the world. Many products are crafted from this metal, including posters, women wear such as bangles, boxes, statues, masks, buttons, and many more.
- Puppetry
The string puppet acts performed in well organized manner are in parts of Rajasthan, one of the most famous theater forms of the Indian puppetry and Indian wooden handicrafts. Since it is a string puppet controlled and managed by a single string that passes from the head of the puppet due to which it is also called as kathputli. The puppets are made entirely out of wood, and worn proper designed and stitched dresses made with cotton and metal wires, while making them dance by a performer backstage, which is why they are called kathputli. Skilled artisans from Rajasthan have been showcasing this form of art since ancient times, making this form of art an eternal part of the unique Rajasthani culture and tradition to entertain and attract viewers.
