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Sunday, March 24, 2024
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Handicrafts

Kashmir’s key heritage sector, handicrafts were the main products that introduced the art of the valley to the rest of the world. Though currently under stress for a set of reasons, some even beyond the control of artisans and the traders, the handicrafts continues to be a major player of Kashmir’s economy. This section features the crafts and the craftsmen, the process and the innovations in addition to the market that is global in nature.

Kashmir’s Map Shawls

Shawls woven in Kashmir were fashion statements on Paris streets early nineteenth century. But it took a long time for the buyers to understand...

Dying Art Of Papiermachie

Dwindling economic utility of the art is forcing artisans in Kashmir villages to give up on it, reports Samreena Nazir On a snowy afternoon of...

Crocheting Lives

It took her 16 years to encourage her husband to earn for the family. The failure has led her to separate and to further...
Mohd Subhan Kumhar (KL Image By Bilal Bahadur)

Pottery Is Alive

Contrary to public belief and researcher’s verdicts, the pottery in Kashmir is not dead, reports Bilal Bahadur There were 22 families in Wakoora, a Ganderbal village...
Saima Shafi (KL Image: Bilal Bahadur)

Re-Engineering Pottery

As the modern Kashmir elevated its kitchen-status to imported ceramics, copper and glassware, hundreds of potters halted their wheels and jumped to other jobs...
Manzoor Ahmad Malik shawl-weaver Manzoor Ahmad Malik (KL Image: Samreena Nazir)

Weaver Dreams

Down south, a village has not abandoned handlooms because the power-looms work fast and better, but the weavers say they cannot change the destiny...
Croche work by Najam Qari

Crocheting An Idea

A professional web designer was so passionate about reviving crocheting that she gave up her job and made a successful venture using the internet...

Shawl Sheen Lost?

After the insiders at the state-run Handloom Development Corporation allegedly stole half a dozen prized shawls with classic designs – revived after huge efforts...

Tral’s Gufkrals’

On the foothills of Tral is a maze of caves that is an established archaeological site offering details about the early settlements of mankind...

1865: Kashmir Weavers’ Agitation

By all accounts, world’s first organised labour agitation took place in Kashmir on April 29, 1865, almost 21 years before the Haymarket Affair in...

The Ocean Thirst

The concrete jungle of Srinagar may be bustling with activity as it expands far and wide. But Zamir Ahmad reports a painful crisis that...

Paper Life

Orphaned at 11, a young boy in city outskirts is using winter to make paper objects after he picked up the Japanese art on...

Master Confessions

A master wood carver who says he carved the UN logo in the 1970s, still adorning the wall of the General Assembly is desperate...

Wicker Worries

As the new GST regime, brought handicrafts to the lowest five percent slab, the small, export-oriented sector is facing a crippling crisis, reports Ishtiyak...

The Silken Knot

Vested interest, negative policy interventions, market shifts and nature intervened in the unmaking of world’s biggest silk factory in Kashmir. As cocoon production fell...