Handicrafts reverberates with Indian culture

 The diverse Indian cultures, lifestyles and traditions have lent the most vibrant and exquisite designs to the handicrafts. They come in a spellbinding variety of vibrant motifs and designs. 

The beautiful artifacts that have surfaced from the Harappan and Mohenjodaro civilization sites reveal the artistic inclinations of the ancient man.

Today, the same technique and crafts perfected over centuries continue to captivate the aesthetics of the modern person.

Handicraft, also known as craft work or simply craft, is a type of work where useful and decorative devices are made completely by hand or using only simple tools. Usually the term is applied to traditional means of making goods. The individual artisan-ship of the items is a paramount criterion; such items often have cultural or religious significance. Items made by mass production or machines are not handicrafts.

Usually, what distinguishes the term handicraft from the frequently used category arts and crafts is a matter of intent: handcrafted items are intended to be used and worn, having a purpose beyond simple decoration.

Handicrafts are generally considered more traditional work, created as a necessary part of daily life, while arts and crafts implies more of a hobby pursuit and a demonstration of a creative technique. In practical terms, the categories have a great deal of overlap.

Handicrafts include assemblage - collage in three dimensions, beadwork, bone carving, collage possibly involving seeds, fabric, paper, photographs and/or found objects, cooking, embroidery, gardening, handmade, knitting, marquetry, metalwork, modelling, mosaic, needlework, pottery and ceramics, pressed flower craft -- uses real flowers and leaves, sewing, shoemaking, spinning, puppetry, stained glass, woodworking, cabinet making, chip carving and wood burning.

Making of each handicraft item involves different type of work and various level of labour.

Marquetry is the craft of covering a structural carcass with veneer forming decorative patterns, designs or pictures. The result may be furniture, decorated small objects or free-standing pictures. Marquetry differs from the more ancient craft of inlay, in which a solid body of one material is cut out to receive sections of another.

Collage (From the French, coller, to stick) is regarded as a work of visual arts made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. This technique made its first appearance in the early 20th century as a groundbreaking novelty, however with the passing of time it's become ubiquitous.

Embroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with designs stitched in strands of thread or yarn using a needle. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. Machine embroidery is created by using a specialized machine that can read a computerized design to automatically create a stitched design.


Knitting is one of several ways to turn thread or yarn into cloth (compare to weaving, crochet). Similar to crochet, knitting consists of loops pulled through other loops; knitting differs from crochet in that multiple loops are "active". The active loops are held on a knitting needle until another loop can be passed through them.

Pressed flower craft consists of drying flower petals and leaves in a flower press to flatten and exclude light and moisture. The pressed items are then used for a variety of craft projects. Pressing flowers makes them appear flat, and often there is a change in color, ranging from faded colors to greater intensity of color.

Stained glass is a term that refers to both the material of coloured glass and to the art and craft of working with it. Stained glass, as an art and a craft, requires the artistic skill to conceive the design, and the engineering skills necessary to assemble the decorative piece, traditionally a window, so that it is capable of supporting its own weight and surviving the elements. While stained glass painting, beadwork, various types of collage, cooking, gardening, handmade, pressed flower craft are easy to make and any layman can do them, embroidery, knitting, marquetry, metal/wood/needle work, pottery, puppetry, bone/chip carving etc requires trained hands.
“I do a lot of glass work like emboss painting, sand painting, stain glass, fabric painting and many other hand works. All are easy to do but one needs to be efficient in free hand drawing in order to get the outline perfect”, says Prabanjani, student.

All materials for handicraft works are easily available in the market at special craft houses. Common handicraft materials include aluminium crafts, bead crafts, brass crafts, cane & bamboo crafts, ceramic crafts, coir, gems, glass, handmade paper crafts, ironmongery, ivory, jute, leather crafts, metal crafts, papier-mâché crafts, pottery, stone crafts, terracotta crafts, textile, wood crafts and wrought iron crafts.

Most houses in India are adorned with numerous handicraft works mostly done by the members of the household itself. “Though I do many hand works, I don't sell them. I do it for my pleasure and decorated my entire house with my works”, says Prabanjani.

The cultural rhythm of India reverberates in the modest dwellings of the Indian artisans for whom handicrafts are not just a vocation but also veneration.