What is Craft? || All about CRAFT || Art & Craft TALKS

What is Craft? & All about CRAFT are the things, covered in this blog by Art & Craft TALKS. Hope to see you all here, till the last & gather knowledge as much as possible...

What is a Craft?

Craft is a skill or creativity that one has in making things, especially with hands. Some examples of craft are Pottery-making, Rakhi-making during Raksha Bandhan (a festival in India), DIY, etc.

In countries like India and its surrounding countries, Craft is relatively seen as a hobby. Whereas, in the west, it is more about professionalism, than a hobby.

Skill is the most important thing for a craftsperson.

What is a Traditional Craft?

What is a Traditional Craft? || Art & Craft TALKS

Any craft made from manual labor along with original features is generally referred to as Traditional Crafts. Some examples of Traditional Crafts are Puppetry and Storytelling.

One of the most common examples of Traditional craft is Handicraft. As it involves both manual labor as well as skilled labor. Different handicraft items are available in the market. For Example Bagh print, Calligraphy, Canvas Work, Weaving, Knitting, etc.

Bagh print is an Indian traditional handicraft. The process involves hand-printed woodblock relief prints with naturally sourced pigments and dyes. It is a popular textile printing product in India.

Calligraphy is a visual form of craft. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or any other form of writing instrument. It continues to flourish in the forms of wedding invitations and event invitations and religious crafts to date.

The application of dyes or pigments on textile materials such as fibers, yarns, and fabrics to bring out the color with desired color fastness is called Dyeing.

Categories of Traditional Craft:-

1) Any form of Craft that we see in day-to-day life. Like decorating, items in Birthday parties (especially those made from hands) or Lamp-post in Park is a category of Traditional Craft.

2) Crafts that involve manual labor like pottery. Today, artificial potteries are also available. However, the traditional ones are still quite popular.

3) The traditional methods of making crafts are still very common in India. These also fell into the category of Traditional Crafts.

Crafts that are made for several years like 100 years or so with little changes are also referred to as Traditional Crafts. Examples of such crafts are Dalia(a basket made from bamboo-woods).

4) The crafts which involve traditional techniques are also categorized as traditional crafts. For example, Pots (Gahra) uses the same traditional method of making as well as uses natural resources i.e. Clayey soil.

These were used for storing water in traditional days and are still quite common in Indian households.

5) A group of craftsmen making a certain product in a particular area. In this category, the competition is low as well as the profit is also high.

There exists in small towns like Mithila where Mithila paintings are quite famous.

Jharcraft

Jharcraft || Art & Craft TALKS

Jharcraft is an initiative taken by Jharkhand Government to help local handi-craft businesses to boom. This has helped many small craftsmen to sell their crafts outside Jharkhand and earn money. It has also helped in generating employment.

This was established in 2006 with an objective to support and develop Sericulture farmers, weavers, and artisans of Jharkhand.

Many different varieties of crafts are promoted here like- Mithila Paintings, Tussar Silk sarees, Handlooms, etc.

Work-sheds are built within the villages with all necessary facilities for the artisans and weavers to work at the nearest place from their houses.

Other facilities including training, raw materials, etc. are also provided to them in these work-sheds for uninterrupted work. These artisans are supervised by the master trainers and qualified cluster managers & project managers throughout.

These steps are taken to check the quality standards of the commodities produced.

The success of Jharcraft

Jharcraft has obtained the Export-Import code and successfully exported it to foreign countries.

Sweden, the USA, the UK, Germany, Sudan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, China, Lithuania, Brazil, Cambodia, France & Greece are the major importers of the organization.

Jharcraft is the only producer of Organic Tasar Silk across the globe and has added value to its product by obtaining a "GOTS Certificate" from One Cert, USA.

Impact on Craft-makers

Impact on Craft-makers || Art & Craft TALKS

These initiatives like Jharcraft have helped handicraft makers and other local handloom makers to reach the global market. It has also spread awareness amongst people about the importance of Craft.

Also, many people who depend on crafts for their livelihoods are saved.

No such brand exists in any other state to promote traditional handicraft businesses. But that’s not the case with Jharcraft. As it is state-sponsored, it helps in generating revenue for the state.

However, today the Traditional Craft is no more traditional because of Machines. Many new types of machinery have led to the transformation of traditional craft to modern craft.

Conclusion

Following the above discussion, it is clearly seen that there is a need to promote local handicraft businesses as they being employments. This also generates revenue for the Government.

The central government should take the initiative to promote handi-crafts and help the Indian crafts industry to grow. A youth country like India has plenty of young artisans and creative craftspersons (Akash), which can help the craft industry to grow.

Recently, Make in India has helped many Handloom makers from small villages to sell their products to cities and other developed markets. Companies like Flipkart and Amazon have also partnered with them to provide support for the Indian handicraft industry.

But these initiatives do not provide long-term and sustainable solutions to the problem. This is because of the lack of execution by some states.

And lastly, we as Indians should proactively support our Craftsmen to take the lead from the front in the International Craft Industry!!

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