A handicraft is a traditional main sector of craft making and applies to a wide range of creative and design activities that are related to making things with one's hands and skill, including work with textiles, moldable and rigid materials, paper, plant fibers, clay, etc. One of the oldest handicraft is Dhokra; this is a sort of metal casting that has been used in India for over 5,000 years and is still used. In Iranian Baluchistan, women still make red ware hand-made pottery with dotted ornaments, much similar to the 4,000-year-old pottery tradition of Kalpurgan, an archaeological site near the village. Usually, the term is applied to traditional techniques of creating items that are both practical and aesthetic. Handicraft industries are those that produce things with hands to meet the needs of the people in their locality without using machines.
Metal clay is a crafting medium consisting of very small particles of metal such as silver, gold, bronze, or copper mixed with an organic binder and water for use in making jewelry, beads and small sculptures. Originating in Japan in 1990, metal clay can be shaped just like any soft clay, by hand or using molds. After drying, the clay can be fired in a variety of ways such as in a kiln, with a handheld gas torch, or on a gas stove, depending on the type of clay and the metal in it. The binder burns away, leaving the pure sintered metal. Shrinkage of between 8% and 30% occurs. Alloys such as bronze, sterling silver, and steel also are available.
Handmade jewelry/jewellery, or handcrafted jewelry/jewellery, is jewelry that has been assembled and formed by hand rather than through the use of machines.
Embroidery in India includes dozens of embroidery styles that vary by region and clothing styles. Designs in Indian embroidery are formed on the basis of the texture and the design of the fabric and the stitch. The dot and the alternate dot, the circle, the square, the triangle, and permutations and combinations of these constitute the design.
Shree Lal Joshi was an Indian Chippa caste artist of phad painting, a form of popular folk painting of Rajasthan.
Jagdish Lal Raj Soni is a well known craftperson from Pratapgarh in Rajasthan state in India. He was awarded Shilp Guru Award in 2002 for Thewa art.
Bidriware is a metal handicraft from the city of Bidar in Karnataka, India. It was developed in the 14th century C.E. during the rule of the Bahmani Sultans. The term "bidriware" originates from the township of Bidar, which is still the chief center of production. The metal used is white brass that is blackened and inlaid with silver. As a native art form, Bidriware obtained a Geographical Indications (GI) registry on 3 January 2006.
Pratapgarh district is the 33rd district of Rajasthan, created on 26 January 2008. It is a part of Udaipur Division and has been carved out from the erstwhile tehsils of Chittorgarh, Udaipur and Banswara districts. Pratapgarh town is the administrative headquarters of the district.
Linda MacNeil is an American abstract artist, sculptor, and jeweler. She works with glass and metal specializing in contemporary jewelry that combines metalwork with glass to create wearable sculpture. Her focus since 1975 has been sculptural objets d’art and jewelry, and she works in series. MacNeil’s jewelry is considered wearable sculpture and has been her main focus since 1996.
The crafts of India are diverse, rich in history, culture and religion. The craft of each state in India reflect the influence of different empires. Throughout centuries, crafts have been embedded as a culture and tradition within rural communities.
Traditional metal working in Mexico dates from the Mesoamerican period with metals such as gold, silver and copper. Other metals were mined and worked starting in the colonial period. The working of gold and silver, especially for jewelry, initially declined after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. However, during the colonial period, the working of metals rose again and took on much of the character traditional goods still have. Today, important metal products include those from silver, gold, copper, iron, tin and more made into jewelry, household objects, furniture, pots, decorative objects, toys and more. Important metal working centers include Taxco for silver, Santa Clara del Cobre for copper, Celaya for tin and Zacatecas for wrought iron.
John Paul Miller was an American jewellery designer and goldsmith, who also produced films, photographs and paintings. Stephen Harrison, decorative arts curator at the Cleveland Museum of Art, compares Miller's work with that of René Lalique and Louis Comfort Tiffany.
Laila Tyabji is an Indian social worker, designer, writer, and craft activist. She is one of the founders of Dastkar, a Delhi-based non governmental organization, working for the revival of traditional crafts in India. She was honored by the Government of India in 2012 with the Indian civilian award of Padma Shri. She is the daughter of late Badruddin Tyabji, ICS, who was a senior Indian civil servant and diplomat.
Mahesh Raj Soni is an Indian craftsman specialising in the traditional art of Thewa, a Rajasthani jewellery making tradition using glass and gold leaves and is one of the surviving exponents of the art form which has roots in Pratapgarh, Rajasthan. He is a member of Rajasthan Thewa Kala Sansthan and has featured in the Limca Book of World Records in its 2011 edition. Soni, who is a cancer survivor, was honoured by the Government of India in 2015 with Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award.
Gopal Prasad Sharma is an internationally recognised Indian artist associated with the traditional miniature art of Rajasthan.
The craft of cloisonné enameling is a metal and glass-working tradition practiced in the Byzantine Empire from the 6th to the 12th century AD. The Byzantines perfected an intricate form of vitreous enameling, allowing the illustration of small, detailed, iconographic portraits.
Girish Rajsoni was the 2015 winner of the Shilp Guru award for thewa and gold filigree on glass. He is from Pratapgarh, Rajasthan, India.
Linda Threadgill is an American artist whose primary emphasis is metalsmithing. Her metal work is inspired by forms of nature and the interpretations she gleans from the intricate patterns it presents. She explores the foundation of nature to allude to nature and transform it into re-imagined, stylized plants forms.
Minakari or Meenakari is the process of painting and colouring the surfaces of metals and ceramic tiles through enameling, originating in Safavid Iran. It is practiced as an art form, and commercially produced mainly in Iran, India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Minakari art usually involves intricate designs, and is applied as a decorative feature to serving dishes, containers, vases, frames, display ornaments, and jewelry.
Mounaragam is a Malayalam-language Indian television soap opera that airs on Asianet and streams on Disney+ Hotstar. It is an official remake of the Telugu language serial Mouna Raagam, which airs on Star Maa. It is one of the longest-running soap opera in Malayalam.
