Artisans around us: Kiranbala Harichandan

A multi-proficient artisan who weaves magic with hands:  Kiranbala Harichandan

Kiranbala Harichandan is the master handicrafts person who runs Seven Diamond Multicraft, that is a producer of handmade items . Situated at Lokeswarpur, Pallahat, Khordha District of Odisha, this organization has been functioning since 2005. Previously, it started with home creations however now their creative work has made its path to diverse stalls in the last fifteen years.

Their products include applique paintings, embroidery, straw art and paddy artwork which is made by trained individuals. They even create pillow covers, sofa covers and bedsheets, which they promote from houses or from stalls at Gopalpur, Bhubaneswar or anywhere else when they get a chance.

Kiranbala, besides being an outstanding artisan, she also gives training to young people at distinctive locations for which she is being paid by the government. She has 15+ artisans working with her at Seven Diamond Multicraft. They acquire the raw materials in bulk from places like Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Puri & Pipili and they an inventory for 3-4 months.

Their efforts in this is field has started to pay off because of the high quality of work. She shared that recently , they got an order for applique work for a temple for INR 28,000. However, the temple administration was so impressed that they paid additional INR 2,000.

She is a self-made artisan, who had this hobby since her school days and later converted this to a business. She believes that  "handmade products have much greater authenticity and beauty than the machine-made ones". At the same time, she expresses grief, that people nowadays are unaware of the high-quality produced by artisans and prefer the machine-made cheaper products. She is happy that our honorable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modiji has started the "vocal for local" campaign, and this she believes makes the case for artisans stronger. 

The current Covid-19 situation has posed a problem for her as the sales are down, however they are assured that they have got enough stocks of their artwork, which would start selling once things return to normalcy. 

That’s called optimism and our salute to many more Kiranbala's in India who are promoting local products and creating livelihoods for artisans.

(Interviewed by Neha Dash, KSOM 2nd year student during her internship with EnigmaticIndia. Photos have been provided by Ms Kiranbala)

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Artisans Around Us: Md Khurshid Ansari

“You got to pack anything, whenever you make a sale and that is an opportunity”: Khurshid Ansari

Md. Khurshid Ansari is a craftsman of Jute & Cotton working as a trainer in a production unit at Rishra close to Hooghly, in West Bengal. His organization is a part of the Bharatiya Mahila Sangathan since thirty years. Nine years into this organization as a craftsman, Mr. Khurshid has gained a great deal of recognition worldwide. Mr. Khurshid is not only a great artisan himself but also contributes to the society as a trainer at the Aditya Birla Institute. He has received many awards for his contribution to the society including Aditya Birla Jan Seva Trust for two years.

His organization deals with jute & cotton bags, canvas & Tisco bags. They make workplace  lunch boxes (which is their best-selling product). Apart from this they supply gunny bags to Supermarkets/malls. In the initial days, he struggled a lot to form his team, which comprises mostly women. However after months of training, the team is well settled and delivering well. The supply chain for the products  involve procuring the jute and cotton directly from the mills  through an agent. The raw materials are  bought as per the frequency of orders and it is converted into finished good in an impressive line-up of the  twenty-five (25) machines for  Jute  products  and  twelve (12) machines for Cotton products. 

He definitely wants his products to go global through online channel, however due to very high packaging and shipping cost, he is unable to do so. This is limiting the sale of the products just to exhibitions and small shops/retail outlets. As asked by our team regarding how the Jute and Cotton bags will be reach globally, he quoted “you got to pack anything whenever you make a sale and that is an opportunity that strikes us”. As there's slowly a ban of synthetic resin packaging, the demand of jute and cotton bags has seen an increase. He has seen that the craze for such eco-friendly products is increasing both in  Asia and Europe. Traveling within the country with these merchandise to various exhibitions, Melas, International Trade Fairs, noted exhibitions in cities. He has gained heaps of expertise regarding client preferences and also understanding the dynamical demands. Apart from these, he has tied up with a chain of providers in Odisha, which has a good uptake on Jute products (as it’s a Temple State and jute is considered to be a lucky material as per Mr. Khurshid).

Through this story he wants to reach out to individuals who support buying eco-friendly products /merchandises and also make us aware of the impact he and his organization is creating in generating livelihoods in his locality.

(Interviewed by Neha Dash, KSOM 2nd year Student during her internship with EnigmaticIndia. Photos have been provided by Mr Khurshid)

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Artisans Around Us: Sunita Mohanty

"If you dream it,you can do it": Sunita Mohanty

For each person out there who desires to realize their goals, their dreams however have faced tons of Obstacles, Doubters, have created mistakes and so finally given up…Well here’s the story of 1 Odisha woman who made it all on her own by breaking out of all the prevailing stereotypes. Mrs. Sunita Mohanty, associate businessperson and also the owner of Neena Crafts, five years past was a bit like the other Painter trying to find a chance to touch the lives of others through her work however rather than waiting, she set to form for herself a platform wherever she may level up in achieving her dreams and thus Neena Crafts was fashioned.

Neena Crafts is presently concerned with creating and commerce of Paintings together with the illustrious Pattachitra art form that is understood for its involved details and mythological narratives inscribed in it. Not solely Pattachitra however Neena Crafts additionally features a form of Wall paintings, hand paintings and even saree paintings that are splendidly referred to as Kalamkari. However what interests me a lot of is that the Pattachitra art form, for it's galvanized by the Hindu Mythology and to create only 1 Pattachitra it takes months or maybe a year of labour and patience to place in such a big amount of range of natural colours and portray a story out of it. The saree paintings and even the wall paintings created by Neena Crafts might be of our own alternative, it’s like we tend to may wear art in our sarees and walk and even adorn and style our dream house with all the fashionable nonetheless ancient wall paintings.

As we all know that there's a lot of demand of the hand sewn merchandise within the market and particularly paintings like Pattachitra and Wall paintings would need masterful artists of that, Neena crafts has recruited well-trained and economical operating individuals which permits it to finish the received orders from customers over the year and even reach resolute more audience by putting up their work in several Craft Exhibitions. Until currently they have their store in Odisha wherever the demand of Pattachitra paintings is extremely high however they're yet to create their on-line presence within the market.

It's true that Mrs. Sunita Mohanty broke out of the notion set that says that ladies shouldn’t work after wedding for she took a step and created Neena Crafts which is with success running nowadays, for at that point she gave her Painter Self an opportunity to Evolve!

(Interviewed by Neha Dash, KSOM 2nd year Student during her internship)

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