Cauvery Handicrafts Emporium to open in Chennai soon

Karnataka State Handicrafts Development Corporation (KSHDC) Managing Director Roopa D Moudgil said that a showroom of the Cauvery Emporium will be opened in Chennai in two months' time.

She was speaking at the Gandhi Shilpa Bazar organised by the Ministry of Textiles and Karnataka State Handicrafts Development Corporation (KSHDC) at Hotel Woodlands in Mangaluru.

Cauvery Emporium already has showrooms in Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Gujarat. "There are craft complexes in 13 places in the state," she said.

Roopa said that 'Shilpa Gurukula', an initiative of Cauvery Handicrafts in Sagar is being upgraded and the courses have also been upgraded for 10 months.

She said that modern technology is being introduced at Shilpa Gurukula. At present, 40 students are undergoing free training in wood and stone carving. To help the sandalwood carvings, artisans are given sandalwood at a 50 per cent rate. There are 3,000 artisans registered with the Corporation, she said.

Five hundred artisans have been identified for training so as to upgrade their skills, especially in designs of art suiting the current taste. Roopa informed that not many artisans from the coastal region have registered with the corporation.

There are 100 stalls of artisans from various parts of the country at the exhibition. Of these, 30 are from Karnataka. The stalls are given for free and the artisans are also provided transportation charges to shift their products.

Inaugurating the exhibition, Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel said that the ‘Gandhi Shilpa Bazar’ is a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’ which will promote the hereditary skills of the artisans in the country.

“India has the best cultural heritage with several traditional occupations and industries. We identify castes based on the hereditary occupation the family members take up,” he added.

Dress materials, Ilkal saree, paintings, imitation jewellery, bags, handicrafts and others were also displayed at the exhibition.

Sainaj Begum from Haliyal, who had come with Mundwad Shawls, stoles and key chains, said it takes around two days to complete the work on the shawls.

"Around 40 women are engaged in weaving the shawls, and stoles,” she said

Kanchan from UP had embroidered and crocheted sandals made by women. Hand-embroidered bedsheets, sofa covers, and pillow covers from Thiruvananthapuram; paper bags, paper covers, purses and flowers from Rubi Chakravarty of Mumbai were also exhibited.

Earrings and bracelets made of Tulasi stem using vegetable colours by Jaya Chitra from Tamil Nadu were another unique piece of jewellery at the expo.

Further, the expo has wood carvings, Mithila paintings, terracotta jewellery, pottery, caps, bags made of natural fibre, Banjara, Lambani hand-embroidered products, mural paintings, metal embossing and so on.

Roopa said that the Gandhi Shilpa Bazar exhibition will be held at Karkala from January 25. The exhibition in Mangaluru will be held till January 18.