designer–artisan
collaborations

Nebula
Inspired by the cosmos, this Bell Metal creation showcases the traditional craftsmanship of Odisha. Designer Sibanand Bhol and junior designer Shriya Mohapatra collaborated with artists Shila Sahoo and Sheshadeb Sahu of Shrisha Craft to create this piece. The surface bears the characteristic marks of hand-beating techniques, blending tool marks with metallic luster. This piece represents the intersection of traditional craft and contemporary design, while supporting sustainable artisan livelihoods and preserving cultural heritage through eco-friendly practices.

MAYU: Dance of Sabai and Khajuri
In Odisha's Mayurbhanj district, Ranjita Dhal transforms local Sabai grass and Silver Date Palm leaves into intricate baskets under designer Enakshi Ghosh's guidance. Through her enterprise Khoj Odisha Sabai Grass, Ranjita leads a network of over 300 artists, weaving traditional coiling techniques with patterns inspired by Saura tribal art. Her work transcends mere basket-making; it's a story of women empowerment and craft preservation. Each piece showcases the creative possibilities within natural constraints, blending ancestral knowledge with contemporary design to sustain both community and craft.

Bhandaar
Manikchand Mahato brings Sohrai painting back to its earthen roots through a collaboration with designer Enakshi Ghosh. Traditional mud wall paintings from Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, find new life on terracotta pots, celebrating the mother-daughter transmission of this ancient art form. They translate vibrant animal-centric motifs onto curved clay surfaces, bridging past and present. This project not only preserves the traditional aesthetic of Sohrai art but also opens new avenues for its expression beyond paper and walls.

Wall Partition
In Rampur's polluted lakes, vibrant Mallard ducks glide across murky waters - a contrast captured in designer Enakshi Ghosh's collaboration with kite-makers Touseef and Shavez Mian. Through their paper scroll, they transform traditional kite-making techniques to portray these resilient birds, using bright colours to highlight the hidden struggles of wildlife against environmental degradation. The brothers' expertise in crafting delicate paper forms brings depth to this environmental narrative, creating a wall partition that serves both as artistic statement and commentary on nature's quiet perseverance.

Fabled Forms: Sculptures of Myth and Nature
In a magical fusion of traditions, papier-mâché craft from Madhubani, Bihar meets Gond and Bhil tribal artistry in five enchanting sculptures. Under designer Aditi Prakash's vision, master craftsmen bring to life mythical creatures: a winged horse yearning for flight, a gentle elephant surrounded by woodland friends, a contemplative deer facing its reflection, a textured cow symbolizing abundance and a mystical purple-faced tiger. Each piece weaves together different artistic traditions, creating a collection where tribal motifs dance across three-dimensional forms.

Garbh Lamp
The "Garbh Lamp" reimagines Andhra Pradesh's leather puppetry in a striking ceiling light. Designer Ayush Kasliwal, alongside junior designer Aarushi Taluka, collaborated with master craftsman Sindhe Siva to create three uniquely layered lamps. Each piece features intricately hand-painted leather puppets that overlap to create dynamic light patterns. Siva, whose family-run workshop employs 15 artisans, brings nine generations of puppetry expertise to this contemporary interpretation.

Autumn Lamp
At the intersection of ancient craft and contemporary design stands the Autumn Lamp, a masterpiece born from Kutch's thousand-year-old bell metal tradition. Created through collaboration between master artisan Luhar Javed Abdulla and designer Ayush Kasliwal, this piece captures falling autumn leaves in copper-coated iron sheets. The lamp's organic form celebrates both natural beauty and artisanal heritage. Javed's generational expertise in bell-making merges seamlessly with Ayush's and contemporary aesthetic, while preserving traditional techniques. Each texture and pattern tells the story of enduring craftsmanship.

Bull heads, modeled on cattle integral to southern India's agro-pastoral communities, symbolize fertility, abundance, and strength. The sacred bull Nandi, Shiva's mount, is often worshipped. Decorated bulls feature in rituals and celebrations. Crafted from braided bulrush reeds and natural-dyed banana rope, these materials are abundant in Laxmeshwar village, Gadag district, Karnataka. Local artisans have long used these natural fibers for their crafts.

These scrolls draw inspiration from Rajasthan's wildlife and the revival of the lost craft of "Pattu" weaving. The artisan from Dhanau village in Barmer district collaborates with the designer to depict two male blackbucks dueling over a female against a rising sun. This symbolizes both the blackbuck's resurgence and the effort to revive the traditional craft. The blackbuck, once near extinction, now thrives under protection.

The designer merges the sturdiness of anthills with the intricate nest-building of weaverbirds to create these ant-hill lamps. In Kampli, Bellary district, Karnataka, weaverbirds and artisans alike use abundant banana fiber. The installation features conical lamps of varying sizes, each carefully crocheted by the artisan using different counts of banana fiber for a dramatic texture.

Translating Gond art onto denim was challenging, but Sukhiram ji's craftsmanship prevailed. His ability to blend traditional skills with modern tastes resulted in denim jackets that showcase Gond art's intricacy and vibrancy. This collection celebrates fearless women who inspire daily, emwhiteing beauty, strength, and resilience. The collaboration reflects the power of creative expression, just as clothing expresses identity.

The artwork ‘The Indian Hornbill’ reimagines kite making, with designers Neelam and Devyani from The MangoTree using kite paper and bamboo as art mediums. Inspired by colorful handcrafted kites and the joy of flying, the abstract depiction of the bird stands out. The installation 'Sky Of Kites' draws inspiration from Makar Sankranti, celebrating the Sun's northward movement with countless colorful kites filling Indian skies.

This unique collaboration brings together block maker Tahir and miniature artists Naveen and Mohan. Tahir, inspired by Mala Dhawan's initiative of combining crafts, creates blocks based on miniature art themes. Naveen and Mohan paint over these blocks in their signature styles, adding surprise and dimensionality. All three artists are young innovators, reinventing their inherited arts. Their creations can be used as decor, architectural components, and adapted for various applications.

Project Tarasha and Creative Dignity have facilitated a collaboration between the amazingly gifted Laila Chitrakaar and communication designer Anando Dutta. Laila brings a treasure trove of ideas, images, voices and songs, reflections from the earth and her people. The co-creation has been a delightful exchange of thoughts, set in a traditional visual style and grammar handed down over generations. The presentation is about the realities that play out routinely around her. Her song speaks of aspirations and dreams of the young, cleansing waters of the river and the bounties of our trees that rejuvenate us and the beauty of selfless giving that nurtures and gives meaning to our communities. Her art is a mesmerizing mosaic of her landscape that captures abstractions of a traditional art form in a contemporary statement of her times.

Project Tarasha and Creative Dignity have facilitated a collaboration inspired by M.C. Escher, a Dutch graphic artist and luminary in the realm of optical illusions and impossible constructions. In this East-meets-West collaboration, we take Escher's mind-bending tessellations to the Sanjhi heritage artisans of Mathura and reimagine them through Nisha Vikram’s lens. This journey involved delving into the intricacies of translating complex designs into the delicate format of paper cutting while maintaining the structural integrity of the medium. The essence of this project lies in the fusion of two diverse artistic traditions.

Project Tarasha and Creative Dignity have facilitated this collaboration with Zubair Yousuf's Ajrakh brand, which creates contemporary and modern block printed patterns. His brand has already been diversifying into a range of home textiles and stationery products. The designer, Karishma, therefore, decided to create a new product extension for them. The idea of lamps in different sizes serves as a medium to take their textile aesthetic into spaces in a functional as well as decorative manner. As a practicing clothing designer working on creating products with familiar materials and translating them into different forms, it was also a different foray for both Karishma and Zubair.

On each panel, we tell our stories through embroidery, embedded with our handcrafted jewelry, which includes 25 paisa coins, as we wear our wealth on our white. We have recreated the mashru stripes in embroidery, as the embroidered panels were originally mixed with the Mashru from Gujarat. Traditionally, we used small hand-cut mica mirrors. However, for this piece, we remember the mirror work that helped ward off dangerous animals in the past, in embroidered fabric circles evocative of the mirrors. Our traditional blouse, interpreted as an art textile, is a sort of resurgence of our traditions, craft, and artistic ability.