By Kaipee Luther Newray, newraykaipee@gmail.com
Dehradun, India-The ongoing Rural Entrepreneur for Art, Cultural Heritage (REACH) Virasat festival has turned to major promotion hub for traditional handicrafts and art products made in India.
Since the inauguration of the festival on Sunday, October 9, 2022, Virasat has been hugely promoting some beautiful Indian handwoven grass products and arts made of glass by local craftsmen.
Crafting is the activity of making decorative objects with your hands.
Large numbers of the new colorful artworks on exhibition consist of moonj grass products like boxes, hanging planter, utility baskets, tea casters, dining table and mats, hand-made Jude begs for shopping and office in different sizes, handmade pickles, organic green tea, handlooms and bed sheets.
Some handmade home decoration materials are diaries, diwa, Arpan art for decoration, flow art, Uttarakhand Kedainath Temple, Ransingha traditional musical instrument of Uttarakhand, Laxman Jhula from Rishikesh, Clock Tower of Dehradun, handlooms of bed sheets, hand beaten copper art, cooper glass, gargar container, and hand-knitted soft toys.
Moonj grass found in Khatima is a wild weed that grows near the banks of rivers and is available once a year for a time period of a month just after the rainy season.
Astonishingly, these handcraft products are gaining massive attractions thus seriously stealing the show over machine made products here.
Shoppers are rushing with excitement to purchase Indian handmade products as a way of promoting their art and culture.
Miss. Kehkesha Khan, a seller of handwoven grass products of the Department of Handlooms and Handicrafts Industry (UHHDC), described the REACH Virasat festival as a very nice platform for the promotion of made in India materials.
”We are selling all products in huge amount as Virasat continues to promote our products. We take these different products from Uttarakhand government and sell it to people in the market,” she said.
Additionally, a producer of Borosil Glass Arts and Craft, Mukesh Kumai, says the beauty of hand-made glass products is still unique and artisans have kept the craft alive by presenting new designs and colors.
Borosil Glass Arts and Craft has an excellent artistic expertise that provided quality pieces of work that exceed customers’ hopes.
According to him, they used Borosil glass materials for the production of peacocks, deer, swam, pig, owl, blue whales, Christmas tree, king fisher, Lord Ganesh, Sea horse, rats, beetle, bubble fish, earrings, plant mushroom, bangle, pendent, honey bees and etc.
Borosilicate glass is a type of glass that contains boron trioxide which allows for a very low coefficient of thermal expansion.
“People buying our products are very excited and they always show their interest to buy them more” he said.
He stated that his father trained him how to produce handmade glass products along with his five other brothers when they were much smaller.
Meanwhile, Mukesh Kumai concluded by saying that Borosil Glass Arts and Craft, has trained several students of the National Institute of Design (NID) in Ahmedabad and Shantiniketan School in West Bengal on how to make glass product designs.