Craft and Design Training

Ankita and Medha's croton leaf lampshade design

For the past 6 weeks, we have had two young students, Ankita Katyal and Medha Shah doing their social sector training in Shradhanjali.
They belong to the Indian Institute of Craft and Design (IICD), based in Jaipur, Rajasthan.
The IICD’s main objective is “to synergize traditional knowledge and skills with contemporary needs to evolve methodologies that are relevant to modern India.”
The Institute which has been conceived as a nodal centre for excellence in Craft and Design, has several, programs particularly in Education, Training & Outreach, Research and Documentation and Advisory & Consultancy services.
Further the Institute works in the crafts sector and with craftsmen in an integrated manner.
The IIDC’s mission is to work on the revival of the languishing arts and crafts of Rajasthan and help make them commercially viable.
The four year, (or 8 semesters) program consists of two semesters of foundation, 5 semesters of courses, projects, field study, professional internship and the final semester being a comprehensive professional diploma project. The aim of this program is to prepare students as craft designers to act as a bridge between the artisans and the market.
As part of the IICD’s program, Under Graduates students undertake a training with an NGO during their Semester VI (3rd year).

Ankita and Medha, during their stay in Shradhanjali have undertaken to develop a new range of designs for lampshades.

The result of their research was shown to the merchandising-in-charge of a large chain of stores in India; everyone was very happy with the outcome of Ankita’s and Medha’s research.
Hopefully, orders will follow.

Nature’s bowl

Life continues...

After the devastating Thane cyclone,  our workshop reopened on Monday, January 2. 
We continue to work on new products. The latest is the fruit of the Calabash tree.

Botanical name: Crescentia spp. Bignoniaceae
The genus Crescentia is distributed with 5 species in the tropics of Middle America.  Best known is Crescentia cujete (English: Calabash Tree) with its undivided, rounded leaves broadened at the tip.  It is cultivated a lot.
Very common is also Crescentia alata with three-lobed finger form leaf and winged leaf stalk.  Both species reach 8-10 m in height, having a trunk with flaking bark.  On the branches and young stems appear the inwardly carved, broad tubular, brownish – red flowers (cauliflory) which bloom for just one night and are pollinated by bats.

From the ovary which has two parts a spherical to ellipsoidal fruit capsule develops, often nearly head-sized.  The fruit contains a pulpy tissue in which numerous flattened eatable seeds are embedded.
The dried fruit capsules are used in various ways, such as jazz rattles, colourfully painted and carved as ornaments or cut in half as drinking bowls.  For the American Indians the fruits had a special meaning.
The plant is named after the Bolognese Petrus de Crescentia (1230-1320)
At Shradhanjali we scrape, scrub and clean the Crescentia alata fruit for a multipurpose natural bowl.

Bowl