The Chandigarh National Crafts Mela is attracting large number of visitors, both for the range of fabrics as well as interesting crafts it showcases in the rural ambience at Kalagram.
This year, a large number of stalls have varied artifacts and handicraft, however, one of the major attractions at the Crafts Mela is the fabrics of Kutch in Gujarat, Varanasi and lucknow in UP, Jaipur in Rajasthan, various parts of Kashmir, Punjab and Haryana.
The diversity in culture and traditions, across the country has brought the vibrancy and myriad colours of fabrics and textiles attracting visitors, mostly women and youngsters.
At Rajasthan stall, one will witness fascinating coloured fabrics. In these fabrics, the bright and cheerful greens, blues, reds, pinks and the gold used for overprinting (Khan Work) are available in the form of cushions, wall hangings, table cloth, dupattas, kurtas, bags among other items.
With shopping high on agenda, the mela was thronged by visitors, who stayed on for colorful cultural day performances and enjoyed scrumptious dishes at the food court on Tuesday.
The fabrics and designs showcased at the Gujarati stall by national awardee in Crafts Mela is rooted in its tradition. There are magnificent tie and dye shawls in every imaginable colour and motif… the timeless Bandhini and Patola shawls in exquisite designs and kaleidoscopic colours are here for the coming winters.
Uttar Pradesh stalls have excellent variety of Banarasi sarees, dress materials , suits and even silk bedsheets which are a major attraction here. There are various styles available in Jamdani Banarasi sarees, Silk sarees, Kantha motif silk, Gyasar brocade, Pahuri work, Karuwa script saree, Chanderi saree, Jamwar Pahuro Saree. These handmade sarees are woven by national awardees which are available in the price ranging from Rs1,000 to Rs5,000 and above for premium collections.
Moving forward, the Kashmiri stalls are having vibrant coloured woolens of sheep wool and even yak wool. The semi pashmina shawls with other major textile crafts as Kashmiri phiran, shawls, tweed and silk and woolen based costumes can also be seen gere. The main attraction here is Pashmina Kani shawl.
At Punjab’s stall, traditional Phulkari fabric is displayed which is drawing in huge crowd. People are thronging the stall to buy Phulkari stoles, suits, dupattas and Phulkari jackets.
Jamdani, the traditional handloom fabric of West Bengal is available in exclusive designs at the State’s stall. Jharkhand has put pure silk stall, dress material, beautiful handmade dupattas and sarees on display.Assam stall at Kalagram has wide range of silk, mulberry, Eri, Muga and Oak Tussar, and liked a lot by the women.