Design research in and for India has a history. The 1958 India Report by Charles and Ray Eames – from which flowered design education and the development of a contemporary profession of Indian design – underlined research, training and service as overlapping, supportive and mutually corrective. The Eames’ brilliant meditation on the lota with its […]
Article Category: Markets, Marketing, Trade
Re-Thinking Scale
Two important marks of luxury are customization and hand-work. Paradoxically, craft is often valued as inexpensive. How do we bridge this gap so that the artisan benefits, so that we can insure that quality hand work will continue? What is the most ethical way to engage artisans in luxury work? When I originally made this […]
Artisan Enterprise: Development, Cultural Property and the Global Market
Mary A. Littrell and Judy Frater Artisan participation in the global fashion industry engenders debate. Ashoke Chatterjee (2007), an internationally respected leader for craft development in India, observes that Indian politicians and international development leaders question whether craft sector employment is a “fringe, feel-‐good activity unrelated to power and economic vitality” (12). In response, Chatterjee […]
In Context
By Design: Sustaining Culture in Local Environments Issue #004, Winter, 2020 ISSN: 2581- 9410 Many of the contributors […]
Crafts in Retail
Only a few centuries ago, in pre-industrialised India , almost everything that served a purpose in daily life was made by hand using simple tools and locally available raw materials. Ranging from utilitarian products to highly decorated and complex ones, the staggering diversity was a result of the creative interplay between form and function, between […]
Artisan Enterprises and Global Markets
What is the importance of handmade craft today? Perhaps a more appropriate question is: In what contexts do handmade craft have value today? For whom is this valuable and why? What are the obstacles and how can the significance of handmade craft be increased? What learning takes place by different parties in the process of […]
Business Advantage Through Design
DESIGN & PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT OF THE MORADABAD BRASSWARE INDUSTRY A Proposal by NIFT Accessory Design Department Background In 1997, Prof. Jatin Bhatt of NIFT presented an idea of making available professional design expertise to the ‘Handicraft’ (Brassware) Industry at Moradabad. The central problem being addressed through this initiative was that quality professionals are metro centered. […]
Chamba Rumal
The Project: Reviving the embroidered art of the Chamba Rumal NGO: Delhi Craft Council Location: Chamba, Himachal Pradesh Duration: Started In 1995 and is continuing Sponsors: Delhi Crafts Council Project Coordinates: Usha Bhagat, Purnima Rai, Manjari Nirula of Delhi Crafts Council Background The embroidered art of Chamba rumals emerged in the princely hill states of […]
Project Filigree
INNOVARTE: Project Filigree Catacaos, Peru, 2003In our August update we featured Innovarte’s Cane Project in Guatemala. In this update we bring you another exquisite project conducted by them on filigree art in Peru which took place in 2003.The Peruvian silversmith’s craft, famous all over the world, has in filigree one of the best exponents of […]
Working with Cane Fibre in Cordoba, Colombia – 2003-2004
INNOVARTE Project: Strengthening of the handicraft sector working the cane fibre in the region of Cordoba, Colombia 2003 – 2004 The Zenu people With little growing land, inexistent industry, frequent tropical cyclones, a high level of illiteracy and the extortion of paramilitary groups, the Zenu people, living in poverty today, were in the Precolombian times […]