Aiding the hands of India’s artisans

Aiding the hands of India’s artisans

Handicrafts has always been a major strength of India, with even foreigners going gaga over our indigenous fabrics and designs.

Considering this, two sisters — Malyada Goverdhan and Ramya Rangacharya — decided to set up their organisation called Hands of India that comes up with handmade fabric designs on kurtas, dupattas, and sarees, while helping local artisans earn a livelihood. Their exhibition in Pune kickstarted on Thursday.

“We are an organisation based out of Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh — the famous temple town in India. We started out as a two-member outfit way back in late 2000s, and since then have grown to become a 70-member core team today, excluding our artisans,” says Ramya, who retired from the Indian Air Force before beginning this venture with her sister. Their head office in Vrindavan houses a design unit to create their ready-to-wear range and work with artisan groups in rural regions across India.

Hands of India started a dream of the two sisters and their passion and love for the handicraft tradition. The two, as children, were surrounded by people who are masters of such traditional and inspiring skills. “We also strongly believe that sustainable natural processes make the best products. We had a privileged childhood in a large joint family in Vrindavan. Even our home was full of handmade stuff — intricate yet simple, extremely eco-friendly and amazingly beautiful. Here, handmade traditions have always been an integral part of life,” Ramya explains.

The two were exposed to different weaving and embroidery forms at an early age, with the collection of antique sarees, stoles and embroidered dresses in their temple’s Vastra Kothri (clothes room). They witnessed some beautiful hand-woven treasures, even 100-year-old fabrics here. The two, however, moved to different cities with their respective careers as they grew up. Malyada started her career with advertising and market research moving on to software development.

They soon came back together though and were highly motivated to work with artisans and market their exquisite, natural and handmade products. Hands of India was thus born around 2011. “We have ever since spent time working with the artisans, imparting them the technical knowledge and design ideas, identifying the issues and challenges, taking part in various exhibitions, studying the market, designing our product portfolio and mainly selling to patrons,” Ramya explains, saying that the two sisters complement each other in the business with Ramya’s understanding of art and Malyada’s experience in market research etc.

Hands of India currently works across Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Assam, Karnataka and Tamil-Nadu, and their craft ranges from soof and ahir embroidery, hand made laces, silver jewellery, handloom fabrics, stone pottery, terracotta, oak silk, batik-dyeing and various kinds of hand embroidery.

The humble artisans of our country are largely unaware of the real worth of their products, especially in a marketplace cluttered with mass produced replicas, the two believe. Hands of India thus aims to aid these masters of traditional designs and hopes to create a market for their products — a market which is as easily accessible to the artisans as it is to the consumers, so that the handiwork tradition of our country continues, inspiring future generations to take it up as a vocation.

The logo of their organisation is a kolam, a handmade craft that children in southern India are taught. Kolams are patterns drawn on floors, especially just outside the main entrance to the house, using coarse rice flour. It is one of the oldest surviving traditions of India.

“Our earliest inspirations were the people (both men and women) in the family and neighbourhood who would make pretty things from their hands; the kind of stuff we would never get to see in the market. We are inspired by all those mothers who compete with each other in knitting the best sweater for their children and which results in a win-win situation for all. We are inspired by artisans who take pride in what they create, the way they do it and stick around in their hometowns and profession despite financial constraints,” says Ramya.

Speaking about their future plans, Ramya says that the idea is to reach the export market and grow organically while creating sustainable employment for the rural youth.

ST READER SERVICE
The Hands of India exhibition will be on at Tilak Smarak Mandir, Tilak Road, up to Sunday, September 24, 2017 from 9:30 am to 8:30 pm everyday

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