The 5 th edition of Craftworks, brought to you by Aira Mirchandani and Monica Dalvi, kicked off to a glorious start. The collection of items on sale at this exhibition, on September 20, was breathtakingly exquisite. Many of the vendors at the exhibition come from an educational background in art and the colourful creative results were telling.
And, of those self-taught exhibitors, one can discern the untapped artistic potential making a spectacular appearance in the form of their wares. Aira’s table had, among her products, sensory quilts for patients with dementia. The quilts are divided into portions that provide for activities as well as tactile perception.
The quilts come in various levels of difficulty, depending on the patient’s decline. The activity portions include zippers, buttons that can be buttoned and unbuttoned, movement of beads, braiding and weaving , whereas the tactile bits are various shapes and sizes of buttons, textures of cloth, etc. The sensory quilts are excellent to occupy the patient for hours together, enabling the caregiver some respite.
“If you take the patient to a doctor’s appointment, an unfamiliar and uncomfortable situation can be diffused with the help of the quilt, which can be placed on the lap,” says Aira. The quilt has been put together through research and ingenuity. She says, “It’s not just about putting things together.
It has to appeal aesthetically too. You see, each quilt has a dominant colour , against which I may have a contrasting colour. Other accessories are based off these colours.
” The quilts have three or four layers with strong hand stitching to ensure the objects on the quilts cannot be yanked off easily. Aira has also made a customised, more activity-based-sensory quilt for an autistic child. Nine Lives by Sarita Karandikar upcycles waste to produce jewellery.
“People give me things like one half of a pair of earrings, broken necklaces...
so we deconstruct and reconstruct. The idea is to save all the junk from adding to the landfill,” says Sarita. Starting with necklaces, Nine Lives now makes clothes to provide a canvas to the necklaces, showcasing them brilliantly.
Sarita says, “Even the clothes are made from the last lots of fabric. I tell the guy to give me the last 10 metres, last 15 metres. The scrap from this cloth goes into making necklaces.
” Nine Lives has introduced children’s necklaces this year. “I use a lot of plastic that cannot be recycled,” says Anita Haladi, pointing to fish made of scrap cloth that were stuffed with soft plastic. There were cloth coasters with plastic inserts that made them more stable.
Anita is a newbie when it comes to being creative with waste. “I come from a generation that used to save everything, so I started making these things,” says Anita, who gets scrap material from tailors as well. All her work is marked by embroidery patterns.
Joscia Coutinho of Ecocia states that her choice of denim , as a base for her products, is due to its attributes of being timeless and classic. Beginning with her old pairs of jeans, she’s gone on to convert a hobby into an entrepreneurial venture. Her products range from innovatively designed jewellery, décor, bags, oven mitts, placemats, and so on.
Avalon Creations’ Aaron De Souza began making furniture to fund the payments for his flat. During his research, he stumbled across epoxy resin on YouTube, and now produces attractive lamps, coasters serving trays, clocks and table tops made with epoxy resin. The intricate bobbin lace produced by Tasi Misquita is eye-catching.
She allays fears of the enterprise being difficult, saying, “It is more time consuming and tedious.” She adds, “It is popular in Europe, but the youngsters these days don’t really have the patience for it.” Nandita Datta’s ceramic creations, produced through the slab technique, were stunning in their blue-green hue, the colour representing Goa’s flora and fauna.
The founder and director of Studio Glasshopper, Betalbatim, has original designs of crockery (under the name Nanmakes) and decorative items. Luxury, jar-based candles and scents are what Anushka Vernekar of Florence & Co specialises in. But, she also has products like melts, mists and air fresheners.
“It’s got all natural, organic stuff...
shea butter, coconut butter, cocoa butter and a little bit of soy wax, which is used for cosmetic purposes. The grainy stuff you see on top means the candle is natural,” she says of her massage candles. Saee Tushar of Heartfelt had beautiful, lightweight earrings, which she assures, “are light enough to wear all day long.
” The designs reflected Goa’s azulejos , metal work, warli art, quilts, etc. Body essentials, such as shampoos, body lotions, body oils and soaps, made of virgin coconut oil, were also on sale. These are handcrafted by Maneesha Fernandes from the Fiji Islands , married to a Goan.
Maneesha says of the brand she started in Fiji, “In Fiji it’s called Go Coconut. Here we’ve named it Go Coconut, Love Fiji.” Uniquely produced postcards and posters were the showstoppers among sustainability advocate Heena Shah’s goods.
The pictures are Heena’s own photographs from her travels, reproduced on recycled paper. There promises to be more to entice you on day two (September 21) of the Craftworks exhibition at ESG, Panjim, so don’t miss it..
