some notes and thoughts

What can be my role as a designer in a craft industry?

Designers I feel can be an interface between tradition and modernity, helping match a craft production to the requirements of contemporary living. Crafts in India seem to still be predominantly cast in the rural shadow, where as the market is becoming increasingly urban if not global.

Working at Sandur made me begin to think very deeply of questions related to what craft is today, what the role of a designer is, and what was and is the role of the artisan. I had always looked at the craft sector from a very superficial point of view. There was always a desire to learn, and find ways of preserving our traditional and other craft forms.

Having read about, and been to several small-scale craft communities (that weren’t connected to an organization), I had slightly different, although not romantic, image of who an artisan was. In my opinion the artisan was the designer, the producer and the marketer all rolled into one. Today the artisan isn't directly in contact with the urban client, and the bulk users. This has taken away from him being able to be any of these three. He is no longer attuned to the wants and tastes of the consumers. One can see a similar case in Sandur. Because of this change in market and the needs of the customer, a designer comes in help to bridge this gap- the artisan now becomes a skilled labourer. Mechanically producing designs given to him or her, one after the other.

In Sandur especially I began to think ‘what the craft means to the artisan today’?

In most cases I think, craft started on a small scale where things they made were bartered, or made for personal use. Or are sold for a small amount in the local market. Over the years as industrialization has led to a massive boom in production. Way cheaper, industrially produced replacements for the craft have come into the market. There is such a variety – all cheaper. The craft being at a high threat from these, is suddenly looked at in terms of money- and when looked at this way, the craft is way more expensive than the cheap, industrially produced replacement. So this means that the client changes to wealthier possibly urban person.

For the Lambani women their kashida was for themselves, to create beautiful aesthetic pieces for when they got married. Over time , with changes in the environment and lives of the Lambani, as they migrated and adapted to other cultures, this tradition has changed. Also today with busier lives and changes in vocations, this tradition would be expensive and inconvenient for them to follow.

The dyeing craft needs to be saved, the context and market is suddenly changing so much that someone like a designer needs to step in here.

It is important to look at socio cultural and economic aspects before we can begin intervention.

“Taking the craft out of its culture objectifies it.”

The whole beauty of craft is that each piece produced is unique and an expression of the artisan. Craft production cannot be mechanical, each product is expression of his or her own creativity and has a unique cultural identity. Generally traditional crafts have been usually developed gradually in a particular context and evolving in response to changes in the needs if a particular society.

In the case of Lambani kashida, this was a ritualistic craft. Its meaning is irrelevant today and so a change in cultural practices have led to the death of the ritual that the craft was originally used for. What is the best way preserving this craft? What are these parameters when it comes to Lambani craft? Has taking the craft out of its context objectified it?

After working with the Lambani women, I feel that there is critical need for designs, motifs and techniques to be documented. Artisans have a record of their craft in their minds and their fingers. Hence there is a real danger of motifs, designs, and traditions dying out due to changes in the environment and lives, underuse or even the death of a specific artisan group. I remember coming across 3 or 4 families in Kutch, each had only two or three people involved in the craft, and who were the only ones in the world who knew it. The fact that craft traditions are oral traditions makes their documentation important.

For instance, when I came back I did some research on the Lambani , and I it is said that they were very closely connected to the Banjara community in Rajasthan. The Banjaras I know have very rich tradition of stories and motifs in their craft. Today the Lambani don’t remember any, but something makes me believe that they too had a whole lot of these. I can’t stand here and judge saying that this loss is bad, however personally I think it’s a sad loss.

Working at the Sandur Kushala Kala Kendra made me think of this distance between the artisan and the client.

Today the scale of production has changed drastically too. The artisan needs to, using his traditional skill and tools, cater too bulk orders, deadlines and someone elses aesthetics. Once, the aesthetic was natural, today it is imposed upon him by the designer. This is in some ways small scale, planned industrialization. The client and artisan are separated by large distances- they don't speak the same language both physically and metaphorically. They have no association.

The designer tries to bring about this association through workshops and exhibitions sometimes, but the disparity seems to be very large.

“When design is saved for a professional designer and the craft is relegated to the artisan, the latter is left as nothing but a skilled worker”. I felt this very strongly while I was at Sandur. The artisans themselves felt such alienation to their craft that there was no personal interaction with it. Each stitch was theirs, but the forms the stitches created they had no feeling for. The new colours, the materials the textures and especially the new forms, didn’t speak to them.

Gowri bai said to me, “ I dont like these colours at all. We would never wear these colours, they are so dull! I don’t why these city people like such colours. Designers come and give these to us, and we just use them.” Would you like to add your own design and colours and then sell it? “ No one would buy our colours. And we don’t have the time or know how to design. Id rather come here, stitch what they tell me to and get my money.”

For someone who has this distance with the craft and the client how does the designer facilitate creativity? What is the best way to do so? How can the designer unleash the creativity of the artisan while making himself invisible?

What is the priority - the pressing need of conserving just the physical craft, even if it means alienating it from the artisans themselves, or trying to slowly in the long run re-create a local market and slowly bring craft back into their lives?

Im not sure how this can done, but a possibility could be that the designer can make the craft more viable using cost effective and sustainable technologies, methods materials and tools and processes that act as value addition to the craft.

He or she can help select or reject from traditional and contemporary experiences. There definitely need to be changes in craft if it is to be economically viable and user based.

For example at Anegundi , they have created a very simple slicer using blades, as a substitute for hand tearing, to ensure that all the barana fibre strips are of equal width. This brings about a uniformity and consistence in the product- giving it a better finish and making it a more viable product to sell. Using appropriate technology we can simple and least expensive ways to make processes simpler and faster. These need to be sustainable and efficient in the long run and as well as specific to the local conditions.