The history of Indian handicrafts goes back to almost 5000 years from now. There are numerous examples of handicrafts from the Indus Valley Civilization. The tradition of crafts in India has grown around religious values, needs of the common people and also the needs of the ruling elites. In addition to this foreign and domestic trade have also played an important role in the evolution of different craft forms in India. The craft traditions of India have withstood the depredation of time and several foreign invasions and continue to flourish till date. It is mainly due to the open mindedness of the Indian handicraftsmen to accept and assimilate new ideas.
Today, the craft is going one notch higher by getting this woven into contemporary art. As designers, at Visda, we feel it is important to understand and engage in the various crafts of the country and look at the integration of these into our work. This helps us create a more authentic designs and also integrate the skills of the traditional craftsmen into contemporary applications.
One form a material which is now being explored by us in the Terracotta and the many studio potters and pottery which is coming to the fore in this country. It is an enlightening experience to engage with these young artists to create more customized design products suitable to the needs of the design rather than trying to accommodate the existing available products from the market. In the next article, we will look at one of our first projects where we started integrating this aspect in to our designs.
