Dastkar Basant 2015 showcased India’s rare talented artisans, Ethiopian craft and conducted educational programmes and workshops on terracotta, papier mache and pattachitra paintings
The sixth edition of Dastkar Basant showcased a treasure of handloom weaves like maheshwari, Kota, ikat and fine bandhini along with block printed textiles in ajrakh, Bagru and dabu styles. Splendid garments, fabrics and furnishings embellished with regional embroidery were available in ari, Sindhi, lambani, sozni and applique. Organic cottons and naturally dyed children’s clothing with essential herbal oils and designer combs made out of neem showcased versatility of natural materials. Ruaab-Sewa brought products from Ethiopia for the very first time. Hand-spun cotton handlooms, carved leather bags, decorative clay items and painted pottery tea-sets along with jewellery made from indigenous Ethiopian wood and a selection of local Ethiopian silver jewellery were also displayed.
In her first participation at a Dastkar event, Yashoda Soni, a young tribal craftswoman from Jharkhand, was given the platform (by waiving rental fees) which gave a boost to her confidence and her small jewellery start-up. While the women in her tribe were not allowed to study or work, Yashoda’s father always encouraged her to be independent and inspired her to take the traditional tribal silver jewellery made by the elder women to cities and help them earn an alternate livelihood. She has trained eight women in making market-friendly jewellery using tribal traditional designs and almost 12 women, who were only making alcohol, in preparing and packaging home-made pickles.
Rogan paintings
Twenty-year-old Mohd Jabbar Khatri carries with him a 300-year-old legacy of Rogan fabric art — a skill that has been honed by his family for the past seven generations, but the complexity of which has led to a slow demise of the painting tradition. Working with castor oil and natural pigments, the Rogan technique involves extreme precision in execution and the finesse of the painting gives the impression of it being printed rather than hand painted.
Till recently, Jabbar’s family was the only one practising the art form in Nirona, Kutch in Gujarat. As per the tradition, the skill was never taught to girls lest they spread the secrets of the craft and men started shifting to more lucrative means of livelihood by becoming vegetable vendors or labourers. The local demand fell so drastically in a village, where women once wore ghagras with Rogan prints, that only fabric panels were available. In 2010, Jabbar’s uncle realised the impending demise of his legacy and decided to start teaching girls in his village along with his own family members. This breathed new life into Rogan art, with almost 20 women now working with the Khatri family in preserving the technique.
Their home in Nirona is visited by travellers and buyers from more than 70 countries and much to the family’s relief, the awareness of their ancient skill has grown. The importance for giving these artists a strong market platform was evident in PM Narendra Modi choosing a Rogan painting to be India’s gift to US President Barrack Obama.
Khatri brought his traditional skills to the event and enchanted the visitors with beautifully hand-painted Rogan paintings on fabric panels depicting the iconic ‘tree of life’ and other ancient motifs.
Nettle weaving
Registered in 2007, the Himmotthan Society works with the rural mountain communities of Uttarakhand. It organises and develops sustainable enterprises linked to livestock, agriculture, non-timber forest produce and provides better education, access to safe water and sanitation facilities etc. With the decline of agriculture among the mountain communities due to adverse weather conditions, the locals started migrating to urban areas. Himmotthan then started working with them in resource management and creating alternate income sources based on traditional hand skills.
The locals preferred to weave fishing nets, sacks and footwear out of strong nettle fibers. Taking the tradition forward, Himmotthan supported the community in creating 30 SHGs as resource clusters in producing, harvesting, processing, spinning, and hand-weaving nettle and wool. Since 2013, the cluster (with more than 350 direct beneficiaries) has been innovating on farming and fabric weaving processes to develop a luxurious range of stoles, shawls, mufflers, carpets and tweeds. This range of wool-nettle textiles were showcased at the event to support the resilient mountain communities of Uttarakhand and to show the versatility of natural raw materials.