a hundred hands-art website

A Hundred HandsArtist Members Profile 2012-2013

A Hundred Hands Membership Programme:

This programme, aims to provide a support network to small artists/artisans/social enterprises and liveli-hood groups. Our mission is to help them earn a fair and sustainable livelihood through their handmade crafts - by creating opportunities to sell and evolve.

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Note: Pages linked. Click near end of word to take you to the desired page.

Art/Craft

Decoupage

Balms & Ointments

Carpets

Bengal Embroidery

Crochet Jewellery

Ahimsa Silk

Channapatna Lacquer Ware

Encaustic Art

Hase Chitra Mud Painting

Gond Paintings

Handmade Paper & Products

Glass Crafting

Potted Plants

Mughal Miniatures Recycled Functional Art

Madhubani

Sanjhi Art

Lambani Embroidery

Mughal Wood Carving and Puzzles

Papercraft Terracotta Pottery

Warli

Origami Stained Glass

AepanMughal Hand-Block Prints

Homepage

Recycled Denim

Ojo-de-Dios Smocking & Hand Embroidery

Patchwork & Garments

Artist/Organization

Arati Bedekar

Abdul Kalam & Group: Kalam Carpets

Anjali Venkat

Srishti Complex

Asad Glass Crafters

Asha Ram

Belaku Trust

Monisha Lobo: 2 Green Thumbs

eCoexist

Himjoli

Mohan Kumar Prajapati

Hiranakshi Harshwal: Tara

Karthik Vaidyanathan: Varnam Praachi

Radhakrishna Bandagadde

Ram Soni

Homepage

Naresh & Dileep

Krishna Panyam

Monica Mahajan

NIMHANS: Psychiatric Rehabilitation Unit

Diya Foundation

Vallari Harshwal: Fodo-Ga

Sonia Dhawan: Granny Gregs

Viji Panchikal

Suguna Rangaswami

Shyam Venkat

Vidushini PrasadSashi Bagchi: Maati

Samoolam

Sandur Kushala Kala Kendra

Kumbaya: Samaj Pragati Sahayog Tara Aslam: Nature Alley

Homepage

Rashid Bhai: Mughal Garden

Tejaswani Iyer

Ramona Patel

Vinita Jain: Winnies Papercraft

home pageview artist/org.

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The Bum Bag: A Hundred Hands with NIMHANS

Recycled Denim

being transformed into a trendy handbag called The Bum Bag. The rest of the jeans were used to develop simple plastic bag dis-pensers and other smaller products.

The Programme

The programme encourages the patients to follow simple patterns and earn on each product that they make. It aims to pro-vide a steady income to patients even after they complete their treatment. A Hundred Hands is committed to selling every one of

the bags that are stitched.

The Challenge

Today, the stitching has been mastered and the challenge has shifted to ensuring that there is a steady source of orders for the patients.

The Bum Bag programme started when A Hundred Hands was approached by NIMHANS to help revitalize their tailor-ing centre for their psychiatric patients for creating a programme which would help the patients earn while undergoing treat-ment.

Our task was to develop a design which was simple to execute and trendy at the same time. The result was an old pair of jeans


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Arati Bedekar Encaustic Art

Adopting a modern form of this Greek painting technique, she is inspired by na-ture and landscapes and likes to experi-ment on different surfaces and materials.

Encaustic Art:

It is a technique of painting where an iron is used as paintbrush and wax are the col-ours. The art form dates back to ancient Greece, where beeswax was used to pro-duce stunning effects. Colour was added

to molten beeswax and resin that was then applied to a surface.

Once applied to the surface the paint doesnt need to dry. Instead it needs to cool, which it does in minutes.Additional coats can be added immediately. An advan-tage with this art form is the appearance of a permanent finish. In fact, one could rework the pieces seven years later.

Arati Bedekar:

Arati is a Bangalore based self-taught En-caustic Artist who has been working with this medium since early 2005. Beginning with a starter kit she picked up when living in England, she has produced a collection of more than 600 works of Encaustic Art. Arati has participated in many exhibitions and was also invited to take part in Mood Indigo at IIT Mumbai in 2009.


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Diya Foundation

Diya Foundation:Vocational Training Centre in Bangalore providing training and employment to differently abled individuals. Founded in 1999, DIYA is a registered charitable trust. The idea for the centre grew out of a grow-ing need for vocational training once ba-sic schooling is completed. Ten years ago, there were very few options available to challenged young adults, particularly the intellectually challenged.

Chocolyn: Chocolyn was founded in loving memory of Carolyn Arulappan, in August 2007. Carolyn, a past trainee at Diya, loved to have fun and was an exuberant person. It is the mission of Chocolyn to spread the sweetness that Carolyn embodied, and in doing so, bettering the lives of the differ-ently abled at the Diya Foundation.

Candle making Unit: The candle-making unit at Diya was started in 2007, and em-ploys many Diya trainees in making nov-elty candles.

Paper Mache Unit: The Papier-Mch unit churns out collectibles that are unique treasures. The bowls, fridge magnets and collectibles are all handmade and no two products are identical.

The Paper Unit: They make paper bags that suit a variety of uses.

The Horticulture Unit: It is Diyas latest venture and was set up with the help of a corporate sponsor.


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e-Coexist

eCoexist:

eCoexist is a Pune based social enterprise. This organisation promotes eco-sensitive products, creating beauty by reviving crafts that originally used natural materi-als even while promoting technologies and new materials that are eco-sensitive.

The Safe Festival Campaign has made sig-nificant impact across the country.


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Vallari HarshwalFodo-Ga

Vallari Harshwal:

Vallari has done Ceramic Design from NID and has worked as a designer and buyer for well-known companies across India. Living between India and UK, Vallari has been designing a range of home products and after gaining reputation as a stained glass designer, is venturing into other product ranges with an aim to create objects which amalgamates good design with exciting

products. Fodo-Ga was started with a view to create well designed, handmade coloured glass products, for modern living. The tech-nique used for producing these products is the ancient craft of stained glass.

Fodo-Ga stands for A Foot In The Door. It was initiated with an aim to design and develop a range of home accessories, for those who value handmade products and appreciate beautiful, meaningful objects in their daily surroundings. Stained Glass Craft: Stained glass is col-

oured glass that is traditionally made by adding metallic salts during manufacture. Earlier, it was crafted into stained glass windows in which small pieces of glass ar-ranged to form patterns or pictures, held together by strips of lead and supported by a frame. Details and stains often enhanced the design.

At Fodo-ga, Vallari brings a modern twist to this traditional stained glass craft to suit contemporary living with her exciting handcrafted designs.


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Radhakrishna BandagaddeHase Chitra

Radhakrishna Bandagadde:

Radhakrishna Bandagadde from the Shi-moga district of Karnataka is a practi-tioner of the Hase Chitra mud paintings which are created to celebrate festivals and weddings.

I see designs everywhere from temple walls to Rajasthani bed sheets and cement murals. Im basically an organic farmer

settle down at the bottom. Radhakrishna takes the cream, adds glue and then draws on paper, the walls or any other medium us-ing a brush, blade or his fingertips. The re-sults are striking to see: Ochre intertwined with various colours of the Earth. He dap-ples with Mexican and Nigerian motifs and has managed to seamlessly integrate them into his art.

and I work with nature, so I appreciate all the colours in nature. I have always been experimenting since childhood. Working on Hase Chitra is like meditating. The art is simple and complicated at the same time. I have learnt so many things, yet there is so much more to learn. That is its strength and beauty.

Hase Chitra:

Mud is placed in a pot of water in the night and the next morning the sand and stones


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Sonia DhawanGranny Gregs

edies and fragrances from the hills, the line of balms, six come packaged like little gifts wrapped in printed paper under the Gran-ny Gregs tag.

Granny Gregs Balms and Ointments:

Handmade salves that use natural ingredi-ents, Granny Gregs have a wide range of balms and ointments for varied uses. All the balms come in a beeswax base with infused natural oil sourced from bee farms where you get the unadulterated darker

Sonia Dhawan:

Sonia Dhawan, a geneticist by profession, uses recipes handed down over genera-tions and combines that with her scientifc knowledge of medicinal herbs and plants.

Her Grandmas little home remedies paid off for this Bangalore-based Geneticist. Sonia Dhawan now makes her own line of balms. Reminiscent of familiar home rem-

version that actually smells of honey.

The natural oils are from Shimoga. How-ever, the chocolate one is made out of real chocolate and cocoa butter.


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Abdul Kalam & GroupKalam Carpets

Abdul Kalam:

Artist Abdul Kalam and his group of car-pet weavers from Mirzapur revive the tra-ditional Kilims. Their dhurries are made by using the hand knotting technique showcasing not only fine craftsmanship but also very interesting designs integrat-ing the traditional and the modern.

knotted strands that form the pile and the patterns become visible to the eye after the excessive length of the knotted strands are shorn off. In conclusion, the kilim rug is pileless and the carpet rug has pile.

Panja Work on Durries:This craft is mostly used for making dur-ries, (light woven rugs used as a kind of floor covering). The craft gets its name from a metallic claw like tool called panja. It is a metallic, claw like fork used for beat-ing the weft threads in the warp so as to

Kilim work:Kilims are flat tapestry-woven carpets or rugs. These can be purely decorative or can function as prayer rugs. The design of a kilim is made by interweaving the coloured wefts and warps--creating what is known as a flat weave-- in a pile rug individual short strands of different colour, usually of wool, are knotted onto the warps and held together by pressing the wefts tightly against each other.

The design is created by these separately

dedication and vision of the weavers: The result is that hand-knotted Persian carpets are more lively and vibrant and have a lot more character than factory rugs.These last longer and improve with age, be-ing easier to wash at the same time.

adjust it there. The beating is directly pro-portional to the stability of the durrie.

Patchwork:The carpets are handcrafted using the patch work technique. The colourful pat-terns and textiles used are coordinated and matched leading to an end product that is in good taste.

Hand knotting:Hand-knotted Persian carpets are ex-tremely labour intensive and depend on the


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Anjali VenkatKabadiwali

A travel lover, Anjali enrols herself in art workshops wherever she gets a chance; be it Italian techniques of working with glass in Europe, art pieces with fused glass at the Corning Museum of Glass in New York, and other workshops in Perth, Australia. Her fascination of stained glass since her first encounter with a kaleidoscope at the age of 10 has grown to become the passion that is Anjali Design.

Anjali Venkat:

Anjali is a primarily self-taught designer with a passion for art and craft, who start-ed by creating stationery for a major book-store. She still enjoys creating invitations, cards and gift wrappings in novel ways.

While based in Chennai in 1990, she learnt the traditional South Indian art of Tanjore painting.

Recycled Functional Art:

In keeping with her quest to reuse and re-cycle Anjali has come up with her Kabadi-wali range of functional art. For this range she has upcycled the humble glass bottle. Used and discarded glass bottles, of all types, form and colour have been collected and sorted. She also works with reclaimed wood and old magazine and calendar pa-pers, mirror and fused glass elements.


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PraachiAhimsa Silk

Praachi:

Praachi is an organisation that has been working in Bhagalpur in the design, pro-duction and marketing of Ahimsa silk through the efforts of its founder Varsha Rani. Bhagalpur has traditionally been fa-mous for its silk weaving.

Ahimsa Silk:

Ahimsa Silk or Peace Silk is a more hu-mane way to extract silk out of the silk-

worms without killing them. Silk extrac-tion happens after the moths have emerged from metamorphosis. While Ahimsa Silk may lack the shine of regular silk, it is much more comfortable to wear. Its also wrinkle-free and has a better fall. And best of all, it feels good to have not killed any living being, to wear what you are wearing.


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Belaku Trust

Belaku Trust: Kirana, Deepa and Ushe

The Belaku Trust was set up by a group of like-minded professionals from health and social sciences who believed that there was a need for an organization, that combined rigorous research and community involve-ment to improve the quality of life in the villages of Kanakapura. Though Belaku Trust was initially started as a research organization, they soon realized that re-

Deepa:Deepa Self-Help Group specializes in block printed products. The women make exqui-site silk, scarves, T-shirts, sarongs, belts, bags, cushion covers, table runners, silk covered notebooks, tablecloths, bedspreads and gift wrap paper.

Ushe:The Ushe Project, trains women in hand-embroidery and designing. The women make patched and embroidered bags, sa-rees, dress material etc.

search was not enough and had to focus on empowering deprived rural women. Over the years they have implemented activities for sustainable livelihoods through skill and development training.

Kirana:The Kirana women have been trained in making recycled paper used to make prod-ucts like notepads, greeting cards, gift en-velopes, gift tags, bookmarks and gift bags.


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Himjoli

Thousands of rural farmers, artisans and womens groups are involved in this enter-prise that aims to transform lives through trade, not aid.

Aepan, Aarohi, Natural food from the Him-alayas:

Made from the best natural ingredients the Himalayas have to offer, their products in-clude jams and preserves, honey, pickles, culinary herbs, oils, scrubs, soaps, hand

Himjoli:

Himjoli means Friend in the Land of Ice. It is a social venture company that works with producer groups based in Kumaon, a mountain region in the state of Uttara-khand.

Himjolis mission is to reduce migration to cities by creating sustainable jobs in the villages.

knits and hand woven products (including stoles, shawls, mufflers, accessories), organ-ic products, pulses, spices, cereals, aepan (traditional art) and a range of traditional craft products.

These not-for-profits work across several areas from education, healthcare, sus-tainable livelihoods, natural resource man-agement and alternative renewable energy to womens development, panchayati raj representation etc.


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Mohan Kumar PrajapatiMughal Miniatures

Mohan Kumar Prajapati:

Mohan has been doing miniature paint-ing for more than 30 years in Jaipur. He believes that people should do more to cre-ate awareness about different arts in In-dia.

Mughal Miniature Paintings:

Mughal miniatures are still created today by a handful of artists. This technique involves the use of paper called Vasli,

made by joining 3 to 5 layers of paper with natural glue. The paper is placed on a glass and rubbed with a paper weight. Fine brushes made of squirrel hair are then used to paint with stone and vegetable colours. Since they are organic, the colours do not fade and remain vivid for years.


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Srishti Complex -Athulya, Aranya & DareHandmade Paper Products

Athulya:

Athulya, one of the Units at Srishti Com-lex, is a unique venture of Tata Global Beverages, for the rehabilitation of the physically challenged dependants of its employees. The unit originally named Vo-cational Training Center for the physically challenged, commenced functioning as an envelope making unit with just 12 trainees in 1991.

Today this unit has expanded so much that it almost fulfils all the stationery require-ments of Tata Global Beverages in south and about 25 youngsters with special needs are benefited.

Handmade Paper:

They recycle waste paper, cut boards and other stationery waste from their estate of-fices. Athulya ventured further and decid-ed the paper created will only use natural additives found around Munnar like tea,

eucalyptus leaves, lemon grass, pineapple leaves, onion peel, flower petals, elephant droppings and water hyacinth (which is a weed affecting our back waters). Marbling and pasted paper is also done in hand-made paper.

The paper made from Eucalyptus and Lemongrass leaves acts as a natural insec-ticide and effectively repels small insects and silverfish. They are made into sheets and can be used for lining book shelves and cupboards. They are available in the form

of rolls, each consisting of 6 sheets of 2 dif-ferent sizes.

The unique pineapple leaf paper produced through a highly labour intensive process. The lantana paper made from the lantana stems, a local wild plant, is used for making various craft items.

The handmade paper produced in the unit in vibrant colours and designs are used for making different items like greeting cards, letter pads, waste paper boxes craft items.


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Sandur Kushala Kala KendraLambani Embroidery

Sandur Kushala Kala Kendra:

The centre has been training tribal women from Sandur and around in the traditional craft of Lambani Embroidery using mir-rors and vibrant colour for more than 25 years. The Kendra assists the Banjara tribe in design, development and marketing to keep their traditional needle craft skills contemporary.

Lambani Embroidery:

Traditionally this embroidery was done on personal items of girls to be married. It was done elaborately on different house-hold accessories that went into the brides trousseau. The traditional costume of the Lambadi woman glitters with small pieces of mirror, coins, shells and costume jewel-lery.


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Shyam VenkatGond Paintings

Gond Painting:

Gond paintings were originally painted by the tribal people on the walls of their house. They were not mere decorations, but also the instant expressions of their religious sentiments and devotions. The ground and wall in this case becomes the canvas on which limestone or charcoal is used to make various decorative paintings. Common themes included tribal folk art painting based on the local festivals like Karwa Chauth, Deepawali, Ahoi Ashta-

Shyam Venkat:

Shyam, born into a tribal family, started painting at ten. To make ends meet for his family, Venkat worked as a daily labourer for many years before he dreamt of follow-ing his passion for art. A winner of many awards, he shares the ethos of art and the awareness of the subtle nuances that exist in the paintings of the Gond tribe.

mi, Nag Panchmi, Sanjhi etc; horses, ele-phants, tigers, birds, gods, men and objects of daily life in bright and multi-coloured hues.

Venkat does everything from culture spe-cific painting to highly abstract themes. He brings a certain freshness to the time honoured themes. Both modern and tradi-tional stylistic influences have been inte-grated in the work.


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Monica MahajanBengal Embroidery

Monica Mahajan:

Designer Monica Mahajan from Kolkata, a haven for designers from all across the country, works with women in clusters in various districts of Bengal including Bara-sat Howrah and Hoogly to bring saris and dress material with breathtakingly amaz-ing designs and colours to the urban folks!


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Hiranakshi HarshwalTara

Tara:

Tara was born out of Hirnakshi Harshwals love for natural materials and handwork, in Ahmedabad. The designs are simple yet full of elegance, inspired by numerous as-pects of the Indian culture.


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2 Green ThumbsPotted Plants

She enjoys customizing for her customers and believes, Once you discover the plant-lover in you, youll be addicted for life, just like I am. The bestsellers from her stable are an extension of her personal style-plants in unusual containers and contem-poray planters

2 Green Thumbs:

2 Green Thumbs understands that eve-ryone wants a little green to brighten up their space, but in different ways. Eco-en-trepreneur Monisha Lobo has a special tal-ent for packaging the outdoors into a small space. Aided by two green thumbs, Moni-shas offerings, which run all the way from low-maintenance terrariums, to lush ferns in stylish planters and basic herb gardens, make great gifts.


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SamoolamCrochet

Samoolam:

Samoolam started in 2009 at Gaya district of Bihar and works to promote livelihood development and environment related is-sues. Their Prosperity- The livelihood initiative trains women with handicrafts skills. After a year of intensive skill build-ing session the women are able to craft beautiful handmade crochet jewellery and accessories.

Crochet:

Crochet is a process of creating fabric from yarn, thread, or other material strands us-ing a crochet hook. Hooks can be made of materials such as metals, woods or plastic and are commercially manufactured as well as produced by artisans. Crocheting, like knitting, consists of pulling loops through other loops, but additionally incorporates wrapping the working material around the hook one or more times. A single crochet hook is used instead of two knitting nee-dles.

At Samoolam, the hardworking employees create beautiful lifestyle products by us-ing the art of crochet. Samoolam offers a wide variety of Handmade Crochet Jew-elry, Belts, Bags & pouches available in a wonderful range of colors, patterns and designs.


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Rashid BhaiMughal Garden: Mughal Hand-block Prints

Rashids meticulous design vocabulary embraces elaborate and distinct floral and geometrical Mughal motifs known for their softness and richness of colours and de-signs.

He started his craftsmanship journey as a block maker. His fascination for creating fine hand block printed fabric inspired him in learning different techniques of print-ing, which he eventually implemented in his own inimitable, discernible style. He knows how to weave colour, fabric, texture

and form, letting them bloom harmoni-ously as a whole.

In mid- 1980s Rashid Bhai and his two sons, Majid and Wahid, started their own Karkhana, known as Mughal Garden.

Mughal Garden symbolizing revival of the magnificent old traditional Mughal de-signs, now popular all over the world.

Mughal Garden fabric designs, ranging in shades from single to twelve pastel colours

Mughal Gardens by Master Craftsman Abdul Rashid Bhai:

Affectionately known as Rashid Bhai in the trade, Abdul Rashid comes from a family of well known master wood carv-ing craftsmen of several generations who emigrated from Multan to Jaipur during the reign of Swai Jai Singh II and initially settled in Sanganer.

and a variety of techniques like Gold, Kha-ri, Silver and Pigment dyes are spectable standing on their own entity.

The depth of the carved wooden blocks ex-tents till 0.5-1.0 cm giving them durability and sharpness.

Block history:

Blocks for printing are carved and con-

structed by specialists block makers. Block makers from regions, particularly Far-rukhabad have taken over much of the block making trade. Most blocks for print-ing, on fabric are constructed from hard, broad grained wood.

Traditionally, Gurjan and Roheda wood were used to carve blocks. Roheda wood is specially suited for printing because it is light weighted and unaffected by moisture. Today most of the blocks are carved out of teak which is available in plenty and is not

only hard and broad grained but relatively light as well.

The pattern is carved such that the area to be printed is left in relief while the rest is cut away approximately half cm. to one cm. away from the patterned surface. Sometimes, when finely defined patterns are to be printed, the raised pattern is con-structed by using metal strips and nails embedded into the wood of the block. In a multicolored pattern, each is printed using a separate block.


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Kumbaya

Patchwork is synonomous with Kumbaya.Kumbaya makes a range of Indian and western casual wear, duvets, patchwork cushion covers, table and bed linen, cur-tains, wall hangings and different types of bags and rucksacks.

Kumbaya:

Kumbaya, the garment fabrication centre of Samaj Pragati Sahayog (SPS), was set up with the central mandate to empower Indias most disadvantaged people- wom-en, Adivasis, Dalits and the poor, by cre-ating a new skill and employment oppor-tunity in the area. This grass roots level organization has trained over 500 unskilled women from 45 villages who previously had no option other than manual labour to make a living. Today, Contemporary


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Viji PanchikalDecoupage

Decoupage:

Decoupage is an art form where objects are decorated by gluing coloured paper cut outs to them in combination with paints, gold leaf and so on. Common objects are small boxes or furniture items which are covered by cut outs from magazines or from pur-pose-manufactured papers. Each layer is sealed with varnishes until the stuck on appearance disappears and the result looks

like painting or inlay work.

Viji about Decoupage:

I started doing decoupage purely as a hobby...a friend presented me a very good book on decoupage a few years ago and I read it thrice, but never worked on it....The way the lady wrote the book and her obvi-ous passion for what she did rubbed off on me and I was hooked...I actually started doing decoupage three years ago, after my son was born, and realized that it was a

huge stress buster for me and the process in itself gave me a lot of happiness and peace...Family and couple of good friends finally stepped in last year and said that I had to start selling what I made and here I am...I took part in an exhibition in De-cember of last year and surprised myself by doing really well...I heard of A Hun-dred Hands through another friend and joined them a a member since in February of this year and it has worked out very well for me.


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Ram SoniSanjhi Art

Pradesh, the legendary home of Krishna.

Traditionally, motifs from the Krishna sto-ries are created in stencil and used to deco-rate spaces during festive seasons, or are used for filling in with colors in water and on the floors of temples.

The cutting process requires enormous skill, concentration and patience, and the fine detail is achieved with specially de-signed scissors. Of late, striding lattice-work patterns of Mughal origin as well as

Ram Soni:

Mr. Ram Soni, National Award winner giv-en by the President of India, belongs to the only family which has been involved in this art for five generations.

Sanjhi Art:

Sanjhi, the art of hand cutting designs on paper, is typical art of Mathura in Uttar

more contemporary themes have been in-troduced to widen the repertoire.

At one time this art was believed to be practiced extensively over Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat but now it survives only in Mathura.


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Suguna RangaswamiDoll Making

Doll play encourages children to explore different roles through caring for and shar-ing hopes, dreams and experiences with an always-understanding friend and playmate and a collectible for adults with nostalgic value.

Sugunas toys are made with felt, cotton with fine sand, beans or cotton stuffing and are extremely colourful!

Suguna Rangaswami:

Suguna Rangaswami is said to be one of the first ones to have introduced fur toys in the city of Bangalore along with her friend in the early 1980s. She read about doll making in a magazine, found it inter-esting, and attempted to make a fur toy on her own. The frst toy came out so well that family and friends advised her to make more. From then on, theres been no look-

ing back.

Since nowadays, cotton or felt cloth cover-ing is preferred to fur; for the fur available now is artificial and a few children are al-lergic to it. Suguna is happiest when the finished doll lives up to her satisfaction.

Doll Making:

A doll is much more than a toy; it is a cher-ished part of a childs growing up, a link between the child and the world of adults.


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Vidushini PrasadMadhubani

to paint again after her first baby. Initially, it was for decorating home and making paintings for friends and relatives. But with encouragement, she had ventured much further.

Madhubani:

Madhubani Painting is a folk painting from the region of madhubani and its adjoining areas that are practiced by woman artists, where the trend is passed down for genera-tions from mother to daughter.

The area in the northern part of Bihar, India known as Madhubanior Mithila has a tradition of painting walls for the beau-tification of their dwellings. The walls are decorated with Mythological Murals, Dei-ties of the Hindus and with the local Flora and Fauna.

Vidushini Prasad:

Vidushini is a Bangalore based Madhubani Artist who was born in Kolkata. Her roots belong to Bihar, the state where Madhu-bani painting originated. She was born to a family of film distributors and grew up watching Hindi movies.

Fascinated by Madhubani art (that origi-nated in her home state), Vidushini started


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Asad GlasscraftersGlass Crafting

for residences, offices, hotels, and places of worship.

Glass Crafting:

Copper foil or Tiffany method: A full scale drawing of the selected design is made and the colours marked on it. The selected glass is placed on the design and cut into the de-sired shapes that when pieced together, like a jigsaw puzzle, form a pattern.

Asad Glasscrafters:

Glasscrafters is set up as an exclusive stained glass studio in Bangalore, India since 1996. The founder artist, Asad Ha-jeebhoy has built Glasscrafters on his 30-year experience of working in the art of genuine stained glass in Mumbai, Sultan-ate of Oman, Dubai, Israel and Bangalore.

The highly skilled and experienced Glass-crafters team has executed over 2,000 pres-tigious stained glass projects across India


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Karthik VaidyanathanVarnam - Channapatna Lacquer Ware

Varnam:

Varnam (colours) is an ode to colourful In-dia. They craft philosophy is to bring our design expertise to traditional crafts and textiles of South India so as to reorient them to todays context . They constantly engage with craftspeople and have a dia-logue on current market trends in terms of finish, utilitarian value, attention to detail, etc. In doing so, they hope to enhance the

sense of pride amongst our master crafts-people for their skill and ensure that these crafts continue to thrive.

Channapatna:Each product in the Stories from Channa-patna series has been painstakingly hand-crafted by an artisan from Channapatna, Karnataka using the age-old tradition of lac-turnery. Traditionally used to make toys, this craft requires tremendous skill and precision. In an industry where more than 90% of the artisans are men, most of

Varnams products have been deftly hand-crafted by women artisans. The colours used are natural non-toxic dyes.

Channapatna, a small town on the out-skirts of Bangalore, is popular for its wooden toys and lacquer-ware. As a result of the popularity of these toys, Channapa-tna is also known as Gombegala Ooru (toy-town) of Karnataka. Its traditional craft is protected as a geographical indication (GI) under the World Trade Organization, administered by the Government of

Karnataka. The origin of these toys can be traced to the reign of Tipu Sultan who in-vited artisans from Persia to train the local artisans in the making of wooden toys.The Lac-turnery craft This craft involves several independ-ent steps. The soft wood of the hale tree (Wrightia tinctoria) or Aale mara is first turned into circular shapes by the dexter-ous use of hand, power lathes and suitable cutting tools. The turned wooden items are

then lacquered by means of frictional heat. Painted lac deposits itself on the turned wood and gives it a bright and colourful appearance. To finish the process, the lac-quered piece is buffed with the leaves of the talegiri (Pandanus odoratissimus) that gives it that glossy finish.

Karthik Vaidyanathan:Karthik is an Engineer-MBA with over 14years of experience in the media indus-try music, radio and cable television. Around a year ago, he started working on

a hands-on basis with artisans. Being in a full-time job, he would travel to Channa-patna over weekends and holidays. What started as a way to satisfy his creative urge and help the artisans has now paved the way for a social enterprise. In the coming year he envisions Varnam to become a prof-itable enterprise that will continue to give fair wages to artisans and encourage them to think beyond their boundaries.


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Asha RamMughal Woodcarving and Puzzles

Asha Ram:

Asha Ram, the delightful old man of Mughal Hand Carvings, has been involved in creating beautiful products out of Shee-sham, Ebony and Rosewood almost all his life. The prominent style that can be seen in the design patterns that he creates is Mughal.

Jali work:

Carving jaalis on wood and ivory has been a very passionate art form since Mughal times. As being the most intricate art form, the artisans who were highly skilled were encouraged with rewards for creating most outstanding jaalis to be used in Mughal palaces.

The heritage continues and still the art is practiced in the country by a few highly skilled artisans who have now started

making utility gifts and home products in wood. Each piece of carved jaali work is a masters creation and speaks volumes of rich Indian heritage. Asha Rams range of Mughal Combs are a delight for any lover of art and history.

Wood carving:

Wood carving is a form of working wood by means of a cutting tool (knife) in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet,

resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculptural ornamentation of a wooden object. Asha Ram has been instru-mental in passing on this craft to many youngsters and has played a significant role in helping both livelihoods and keeping the art alive.

Handcrafted Wooden Puzzles:

His latest passion is a delightful range of handcrafted puzzles. These mind benders only reinforce the adage that the most com-

plicated problems have a simple solution. Try your hand at these and get hooked for life.


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Sashi BagchiMaati: Terracotta Pottery

Maati by Sashi Bagchi

My objective for working with clay is to revive a dying art, working for the uplift-ment of potters and to educate people about the benefits of terracotta products , an eco-friendly material.

Planters are porous and clay articles en-hance the aesthetic level of a garden.

Cooking utensils contain no chemicals and food cooked and consumed from these

utensils cool the body. It retains heat for long hence consumes less fuel.

In my own small way Im trying to con-tribute to saving the environment.


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Krishna PanyamOrigami

Krishna Panyam:

Krishna Panyam has been practising ori-gami for more than 8 years. He likes to cre-ate objects with a variety of paper that is available all around us. He is a software engineer by profession. Krishnas goal is to make Origami popular in Bengaluru and to start an Origami group in the city.

Origami: Origami is the art of paper folding. Ori-gami techniques are used to create a world of functional and abstract figures from a flat sheet of material. Typically folding an Origami model does not require the use of glue, tape, clips, or any other method of keeping the model in shape.

Most of us would have had some fun mak-ing a boat, airplane, or a water bomb from paper in their childhood, but as we grow,

we tend to stop having fun. Krishnas goal is to bring this craft back into our adult lives.

Krishna likes to use the paper that is avail-able all around us, such as newspaper, busi-ness cards, cardboard, invitation cards, tetrapak, etc. to make interesting objects. He also likes to use Origami, and paper crafts in general, to teach mathematical concepts.

To the untrained eye, a piece of paper is

just scrap, but to the Origami artist, it is full of possibilities. It could be a bird, wallet, or a plane. When you fold a piece of paper into an interesting object, the transformation is amazing.

The beauty of Origami is in its simplicity. All you need to practice Origami is paper, and your hands. Origami has developed methods for most of the common geometri-cal and mathematical operations such as di-viding a line into 5 parts.

Origami, as with many other arts and crafts, also works as an effective stress buster.


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Tara AslamNature Alley

Nature Alley:

I floated Nature Alley to do my bit to-ward keeping the tradition of khadi alive. says Tara Karnataka is a khadi hub. In fact, the Indian flag is made from the khadi sourced from here. I want to, in my own small way, help the weavers in the state. I have recently tied up with the Jana-pada Seva Trust to encourage weavers in Melkote.

Taking another step ahead in the direction of community building, Tara also gets ru-ral women to execute her designs. Initially it was quite a challenge to make them un-derstand my needs and requirements. More than anything, it was the choice of colours that we differed on. They felt my choice of colours were very mara hua! and wanted to use really bright colours. But now they are conditioned to understand the tastes of urbanites. The finish of the products is an importantfactor I ask them to focus on, adds Tara.

Her latest collection includes salwars, kur-tas and tops. Urban silhouettes on desi fabrics is what the collection is all about. Since I wanted to play with the beauty of the fabric and let people enjoy khadi, I have kept the embroidery on it minimal, says Tara. A range of happy colours domi-nate this line of clothing. Bangles, bags, necklaces and patch work quilts are also a part of the collection. Kalamkari prints are also put to good use while designing the garments.


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Naresh & DileepWarli

Naresh & Dileep:

This is a story of two friends brought to-gether by the love of the art. Living in ru-ral Maharashtra, the duo have experiment-ed with the traditional Warli art to evolve a signature stle of their own. Their finesse and attention to detail draws the viewer into an emotional journey with their intri-cate patterns.

Warli Art:

Warli folk art has its origins in Maharash-tra. Warli is the name of the largest tribe found on the northern outskirts of Mum-bai. The word Warli comes from war-la which means a piece of land or a field. Warli Art was first discovered in the early seventies. While there are no records of the exact origins of this art, its roots may be traced to as early as the 10th century AD. Warli is the vivid expression of daily and social events of the Warli tribe of Maha-

rashtra, used by them to decorate the walls of village houses. This was the only means of transmitting folklore to a others who are not acquainted with the written word.

These paintings do not depict mythologi-cal characters or images of deities, but depict social life. Images of human beings and animals, along with scenes from daily life are created in a loose rhythmic pattern. Painted white on mud walls, they are pret-ty close to pre-historic cave paintings in execution and usually depict scenes of hu-

man figures engaged in activities like hunt-ing, dancing, sowing ,harvesting, going out, drawing water from well, drying clothes or even dancing.

Warli paintings on paper have become very popular and are now sold all over India. To-day, small paintings are done on cloth and paper but they look best on the walls or in the form of huge murals that bring out the vast and magical world of the Warlis. For the Warlis, tradition is still adhered to but at the same time new ideas have been al-

lowed to seep in which helps them face new challenges from the market.


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Tejasweeni IyerTs Ojo-de-Dioss

Ts Ojo-de-Dios:(Associate member of A Hundred Hands)

Ts Ojo-de-Dios is an enterprise run single handedly by Tejasweeni Iyer and aims at getting more people to know about it. TODD has a few products like wall hang-ings, coasters, hairbands, pendants and brooches to offer. They also conduct work-shops at regular intervals.

Everything that is woven at TODD is a one of its kind product because every piece is hand made and thus unique in its own way! Patterns and colours are not repeated.

Ojo-de-Dios:

Ojo de Dios is a Spanish phrase that liter-ally means eye of God, though some also refer to it as Gods eye. The Ojo de Dios features four, eight or 12 sides, which are symmetrical. The sides of the object are made of wood, typically thin and flexible

reeds. Yarn is then wrapped around the edges and sides to create an eye-catching pattern. In the exact middle of the Ojo de Dios is a rectangular piece covered in a con-trasting color. These are typically 12 inches long, though some modern day examples are much smaller or larger, some measuring two feet or longer.

t


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Vinita Jain Winnies Papercraft


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Ramona PatelHand Embroidery & Smocking

a hundred hands-art website

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psychiatric patients

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programmethe programme

simple plastic bag

technique of painting