A summer of craft

Artist Rupsona Chitrakar with her Pattachitra paintings an art that has been revived in recent years

Have you been to an Indian art mela and wished you could have learnt to paint folk-style Worli or weave a straw mat?

Just head to the heart of the city in Byculla to the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum. In collaboration with Ekibeki, a design-driven social enterprise, the museum is hosting a three-day craftsman-shop centric festival called Kalaangan, starting on May 9. Enriched by 40 traditional and contemporary artists and craftsmanship from across the country, you can pick from a diverse array of handmade textiles, accessories, jewellery, and home decor items.

Tasneem Zakaria Mehta, Managing Trustee and Director, wanted the shopping experience to be immersive and interactive. "Several workshops by master craftspersons have been planned," she says, "From pottery to sholapith, these crafts boast a history of over a century." Many of these artisans will work on site and visitors are welcome to observe, and enquire.

Artist Luhar Siddik will be present with his own work with copper at the festival

Ekibeki founder Vishpala Naik Hundekari has broken down the processes behind these pieces of beauty, such as pattachitra painting to educate why the work is unique, and yes, costs more than a printout of a pattachitra. "Most people," Hunderkari says, "do not know why they are paying a certain amount for a work of art. They do not understand [the painstaking process] or even know how to authenticate whether a certain artist is skilled at it, and or that the artistic lineage goes back centuries. The public can learn a certain weave pattern, how to paint or craft something from over 40 artists from Rajasthan, West Bengal and Kashmir."

Ekibeki has also worked with the craftsmen and women to make their art more relevant and palatable. For example, the bamboo basket most households used kept rotis, and miners kept coal in is no longer in demand, "So we put our heads together to make something that might be more useful to the modern Indian," says Hunderkari.

The artisans are split into three categories: The first batch comprises 15-20 Rogan artists, masters of the Kutch painting style which uses natural pigments boiled in castor oil. "Only one half of the fabric is painted, which is then folded over while the colours are still wet to create a mirror image," elaborated Hunderkari, "Rogan became famous after a piece was gifted to former US president Barack Obama on his visit to India." Other crafts to look forward to buying and trying included a revival of copper enameling and shorai paintings from Jharkhand.

In the second category are artisans who have urbanised their final products through collaboration with designers or through market research. The last category holds artisans who have won awards, or have contemporized their objets d'arts for a while.