Projects

Natural Fiber Craft (Screwpine & Water Hyacinth) in Kerala, Southern India

………………getting the nature into the designer mould to decorate and enhance our modern lifestyle

Design in DBM has never been about just designing aesthetics in the form of utility or decor products for every aspect of consumer’s life , but to enhance and uplift the basic foundations of design as a field that collectively manifests itself into the wide range of nature friendly, hand crafted, intricately designed and delicately developed handicrafts of wide variety. And as it is well known as fact “ a good start is half battle won”. Maulshree’s one of the first projects was completely nature based in a place that is the paragon of natural beauty and a treasure land for handicraft raw material. It was in kerela, Maulshree from DBM got to explore and work out the dynamics for natural fibre based handicrafts. An extensive package of design activities were carried out to explored screwpine and water hyacinth, two of the innumerable natural resources that can be used to build beautiful utility based handicrafts. Not only bringing economic benefits to the state, artisans but also playing an important part in maintaining the beauty of “God’s own Country” Kerala. Be it documentation of existing art practice or enhancing the skills of regional artisans in craft welfare groups or setting up quality standards or sustainable organizational set-up with material sensitization workshops, the natural fibre project in kerala explored it all. This not only inspired Maulshree to launch DBM with several ranges completely based on Natural fibres, but gave a design boost to women artisans in kerala to set-up self sufficient handicraft production process . From getting the raw materials, to refining/processing them, from designing the product using traditional designs to actually making a product out of natural waste for modern use, the keral women artisans are artist, achievers and entrepreneurs in themselves. Maulshree has always taken her intrinsic design talent to create, develop and nurture traditional craft maintaining its natural fervor yet making it irresistible for modern lifestyle use. This requires products and designs to evolve as hybrids of two or more materials like the floor cushion with Screwpine and fabric. Today,the natural wealth we have in our environment that go waste many a times like screwpine is used to develop items of use with a blend of modern design that caters to current market needs with the help of traditional craft practices. DBM promotes the use of screwpine in bags, baskets, laptop sleeves, laundry baskets etc, the material is found easily and has a rich traditional history of being used extensively in the past by homemakers of kerela to build ‘Chatai’ a quick to set up sitting resource to attend to guests in the house. Promoting screwpine in handicrafts is like recreating the magic of old time conversations in an eco-friendly way like before in today’s time. Water hyacinth is a dangerous weed and is commonly found in water bodies of any region in India ,if not removed in time, it adds to water pollution making the water not usable after some time. Using hycinth in handicraft not only solves pollution problem but gives low cost beautiful handicrafts as utility or decorative products. Also the finances it brings needs a mention: right from saving the bucks for the removal and disposal of the polluting weed to no-cost raw material in the handicraft development, hycinths bring good economy as finished product of great use . Thus, the market gets their natural fibre handicrafts with a premium elegance, quality and strength all by natural means without putting stress on natural resources. Maushree executed a 6 month exhaustive design activity intensive program in Kottapuram village in kerela where the natural resources of kerala and the artisans brought about a remarkable change in the spiritual, moral, social, educational, economic welfare of the people and artisans involved in the end-to-end design project.

The group was trained to develop and enhance their multi-disciplinary skills of craft design, technology implementation and marketing efforts to make a considerable positive impact on the craft sector of kerela region. The artisan cluster, infrastructure, natural product range and documentation developed through this intensive design program to this day presents a remarkable example of implementing traditional skills and craft techniques to design innovative products that leads to cluster development of sustainable skills!

Empowering differently abled artisans and bringing their unique talent on the centre stage!

It was not a turning point for Maulshree Mittal, founder DBM, but a transcending experience when she completed a spree of craft workshops with specially gifted, differently abled artisans of Ajmer, Udaipur, Pondicherry, Delhi and various other parts of the country..These workshops were organised under a differently abled artisan empowering initiative by ARUNIM(Association for Rehabilitation Under National Trust Initiative of Marketing) where a network of registered organizations were developed, to nurture clusters of wood craft, macrame craft, leather embossing craft artisans and so many others. Each craft at each centre was not only renovated but redefined when a beautiful range came out of the hard work of physically disabled artisans working on wood craft in Rajasthan, Deaf blind artisans working on macrame craft or the Mentally challenged artisans practicing leather embossing craft, to hit the market that welcomed the introduction and labeled it a “happy buy”. It was during one such workshop of Wood & Mdf craft with physically and intellectually challenged artisans in a small village of Rajasthan that Maulshree met Ram Nivas. A young, Physically challenged artisan who was one of the participant in the workshop. RamNivas was into practicing the age old tradition of lattice work on wood since so many years and he knew the art well as he got his basic lessons of this traditional art passed on to him from his father who was an artisan too. But like many other artisans in that Ngo, he could not attain his true potential and get the deserving price for his work. Along with other artisans with similar skills, he would make coasters, small puzzles and other teaching and learning aids. They were then sold in a restricted local market driven by erratic seller-buyer equations. Due to lack of exposure, modern training, advanced skills and supply-chain network, the art was confined to very few markets of small or minimal buying capacity. Today, RamNivas along with his group has a different story to inspire other differently abled artisans and their parents. Employed as a full-time artisan with an NGO, they receives continuous end-to-end support from Ministry of Social Justice and empowerment under the Marketing and skill development Initiative for the rehabilitation of mentally challenged, intellectually challenged and physically challenged artisans. This enabling transition came after a month of training under the IICD pass out handicraft designer Maulshree Mittal, who used their existing skills and techniques to design a customer- centric product range which catered to existing demands in wood handicraft market. The range included lamps, photo frames, bookends and kid’s learning tools. Under her training, the samples were developed which were later taken to large scale production to get them selling in the haats, crafts festivals and cultural exchange fairs in Delhi and other cities of the country. They were given an opportunity to learn advanced wood cutting skills, develop new jali designs on wood, use new methods of coloring to create hand carved wood products of unmatched quality. This new range developed by unskilled and semi-skilled mentally challenged artisans was not only appreciated in the new markets they were showcased but they set a benchmark for other experienced and abled artisans giving them a tough competition in the Suraj Kund Mela, one of the biggest handicraft fair of Asia.

Ram Nivas and many such artisans associated with NGOS now live a life of empowered artisans blurring boundaries between disabled & highly skilled through their continuous, dedicated and focused efforts to excel the art of woodcraft. With the production capacity of more than 40 wooden lamps a day, their hand crafted and hand carved designer wood products do the rounds in various craft melas(fair) that are organized in different parts of the country taking not just Maulshree but every buyer through a transcending experience. Through DBM, Maulshree is still connected to such artisan groups, that are together under her training and mentorship redefining the age old tradition in a new style, that manages to capture the buyer’s attention every time they take a look at their handicrafts.
Checkout the ‘Parivartan Range’ of DBM to know more about the latest products and designs in the range.
When I had an interaction with differently abled artisans for the first time, many questions came to my mind

“Art has no boundaries and is not at all confined to few NGO’s or craft organizations. There are wonderful artists practicing rare, beautiful and ancient craft forms in various corners of this rich country with a strong legacy. Being a Designer I aim to explore the intricacies such fine art bring to the table.” ~Maulshree Mittal

“Challenge is always taken as a special opportunity in DBM. If a project doesn’t present any challenge, we doubt its growth prospects, as bigger the challenge, better the empowering prospects.” – Maulshree Mittal

Empowering differently abled artisans

Natural Fiber Craft

“Challenge is always taken as a special opportunity in DBM. If a project doesn’t present any challenge, we doubt its growth prospects, as bigger the challenge, better the empowering prospects.”
– Maulshree Mittal