Potli Educational Activity/Craft Kits for children

Now available at dāram Educational Activity/Craft Kits from Kadam, Kolkata. The kits have been designed to sensitize the children to the various arts and crafts of India, in a hope that they can nurture our culture with love and pride and ensure its continuity in the years to come. These include a Hand Block Printing Kit, Bead Craft Kit, a Phad Painting Kit, and a Warli Painting Kit.

Chanderi sarees exhibition

dāram brings to Hyderabad a range of Chanderi sarees and co-ordinated salwar kurta sets from Sutra Handicrafts, New Delhi.

Dates: July 29 (Thursday) to August 3 (Tuesday)


The town of Chanderi in Madhya Pradesh, is famous for this unique fabric that is a combination of silk (warp) and cotton (weft). Zari is also extensively used in these weaves that were patronised by royalty for their fragile lightness, pastel hues and intricate motifs inspired by nature and the stunning temples of the town.

Sutra Handicrafts was created by the Foundation for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) Clusters with a strong belief that there is the need to support the marketing of handloom products produced by groups of artisans.

The collection being presented at daram includes the traditional woven Chanderi sarees along with handblock prints from Bagru and Sanganer in Rajasthan) and Bagh in Madhya Pradesh. The sarees are also available in Leheriya (Tie & Dye) from Rajasthan and contemporary hand batik prints from Shantiniketan, West Bengal.

This summer...

the new generation of dāram patrons

dāram new range of kids' wear in cotton handlooms has received a very positive and encouraging response from our patrons of all ages...

Launching kids' wear

It is the turn of the kids now at dāram. This summer (March 5th),

dāram launches

a range of cotton handlooms collection for kids that blends traditional aesthetics with contemporary styles.

Cotton handlooms allow the skin to breathe and are soft on the body. They are the best summer fabric for kids.

The range includes garments for the new-born and boys & girls upto the age of 7 years.

The new-borns collection

Specially designed keeping the needs and comfort of the little ones in mind. This is evident in the fastening and styling of the clothes.

6-12 months

Frocks for girls and shirts for the boys

1-7 years

skirts, tops, dresses, frocks, harem pants, pyjamas, capris for girl

shirts (half & full sleeved), T-shirts, knickers and shorts for the boys

Also introducing accessories for kids that include

• Hand knitted toys, bags and natural colour painting kits from the Kumaon Himalayas, Uttarakhand
• Games from Kalaraksha (Gujarat), Haathi Chaap (New Delhi)
• Do-it-yourself craft kits (block printing, bead stringing and traditional painting forms) from Art Bunker (Kolkata)

Honey and bee wax products from the Nilgiris

Till Stocks last...

dāram brings to the Hyderabad for the first time wild honey and bee wax products from the forests of the Nilgiris.

LAST FOREST
The ‘Last Forest’ range of wild bee products is being brought in collaboration the Kotagiri based ‘Keystone Foundation’ that works with tribal communities in the Nilgiri mountains for livelihood enhancement and forest conservation.
The products that will be available come from the lower Nilgiris, where a number of hunter-gatherer communities practise honey hunting and subsistence agriculture.
Honey and bee wax is collected from the forests by the tribal communities using their traditional methods and Keystone works towards value addition, marketing and creating awareness in the consumer communities.

Hive of the rock bee Apis dorsata

Products that will be available include:
• Sweet honey, bitter honey and spiced honey in flavors of ginger, pepper and saffron
• Lip Balms in flavors of Honey, Strawberry, Pineapple and Orange
• Beeswax balms in scents of Eucalyptus, Coconut, Camphor, Olive, Lavender, Citronella and Winter Green
• Soaps in scents of Jasmine, Basil and Lemon Grass.

KEYSTONE FOUNDATION
Keystone has been working in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve over the last 15 years (since 1995) with indigenous communities on eco-development initiatives. The Foundation’s work has been concentrated in the areas of apiculture, land development, organic & fair trade marketing, non timber forest produce and many more.

Honey hunting
Traditional honey gathering is done by indigenous people of the Nilgiris. Keystone has undertaken work with the Kurumba and Irula communities to document their practices, provide training in better extraction methods, map the resources (bee populations) and monitor regularly, provide parameters for quality of honey and bees wax and provide marketing support for the produce.

THE NILGIRIS

Forests of the nilgiris

The Nilgiris in the Western Ghats are home to moist, dry, evergreen and montane (shola) tropical forests. The Western Ghats, and the Nilgiris in particular, harbour a wealth of flora and fauna; much of which is restricted to the region. e.g. the endangered lion tailed macaque and the Nilgiri tahr. The Nilgiris forest ecosystem is, however, under pressures, e.g. from tea and coffee plantations, illegal, logging and commercial tree plantations with exotics initiated by the Forest Department. It also has a significant tribal population, dependent on natural resources for their livelihood; including the only surviving hunter-gatherers of the Indian sub-continent the Sholanaikans in the New Amarambalam region of Nilgiris. Given its distinct character, the Nilgiris forms part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (declared under the Man and Biosphere Programme of UNESCO).

Gaur in the forests. The forests of the Nilgiris have a rich diversity of plant and animal life

Diversity of Forests
The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve includes all the important forest types that are to be found in South India as well as some that are just peculiar to the belt such as Tropical Thorn Forest, Tropical Dry Deciduous Forests, Tropical Moist Deciduous Forests, Tropical Semi Evergreen Forests, Sub Tropical Broad Leaved Forests, Tropical Wet Evergreen Forests, Southern Montane Wet Temperate Forests, Southern Montane Wet Grasslands and Subtropical Hill Savannas.

Source: http://keystone-foundation.org/

1st day of hand block printing demonstrations

Here are a few pictures from Day 1 (Jan 30) of the block printing demos at daram

Sanjay and Purnamalji Chippa displaying the printing from Bagru to a curious group of visitors

Getting the right angle...a TV crew in action

At work...

Jabbar bhai displays one of his Ajrakh creations

The block and the print from Kutch

For details of the workshops and the printers please see
http://daaram.blogspot.com/2010/01/block-printing-demonstrations-bagru.html

Mix and Match

Launching Whitewater

dāram launches the Whitewater label, work of Shweta Dhariwal, an Accessory Designer trained at National Institute of Design. Whitewater made its debut in 2008 and today retails from some of the best stores in the country. Inspired by traditional patterning and garmenting techniques, her bags are a decoupage of textiles and techniques – quilting, hand embroidery, textures and patchwork. “For me, the most important thing is the attention to detail. My products are simple, understated and well finished – inside out. They are meant for people who appreciate quality workmanship”, says Shweta.
Her launch collection at dāram features a wide array of bags from casual day bags to elegant evening bags; laptop bags and sleeves, for the lady on the move. Staying true to dāram tradition, all bags are created out of handloom textiles - mashru, kalamkari, south cotton and khadi. Her aesthetics is about adding a third dimension to the fabric by exploring forms and keeping functionality at the core. Instead of following fashion norms, she relies on research and her innate sense of colour. “The idea is to seamlessly integrate the traditional with the contemporary and create fresh expressions”, she explains.

For an environmental friendly Ganesh Chaturthi

For a safe and environment friendly Ganesh Chaturthi, dāram along with ecoxist brings to Hyderabad a small number of eco-friendly idols of the elephant lord. Made in Sirsi, Karnataka and Pen, Maharashtra these idols are made from clay that dissolves easily in water and are coloured with non-toxic colors that cause no harm to the environment or to human beings.

the idol from Sirsi

the idol from Pen

THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF GANESH CHATURTHI

Source: http://www.e-coexist.com/

To be able to choose the most appropriate ecosensitive solution it is important that we understand the environmental impacts of Ganesh Chaturthi.

These can be summarised to be the following:

1. The water pollution caused by the immersion of Plaster of Paris idols into natural water bodies.
2. The water pollution caused by chemical paints used on these idols.
3. The waste generated by the non biodegradable accessories used during the worship.
4. Noise pollution
5. Traffic congestion
6. Increased consumerism

Amongst these the first two can be partially resolved by a shift to eco sensitive materials and practices.

WATER POLLUTION

The Issue
For some years there has been a growing awareness about the water pollution caused by the immersion of Ganesh idols made out of Plaster of Paris (PoP), in natural water bodies such as lakes, rivers and the sea. PoP is not a naturally occurring material. Plaster of Paris is a calcium sulfate hemi-hydrate : (CaSO4, ½ H2O) derived from gypsum, a calcium sulfate dihydrate (CaSO4 , 2 H2O), by firing this mineral at relatively low temperature and then reducing it to powder. While idols made out of naturally occurring clay (shaadu in Marathi) dissolve within hours of immersion in water, PoP idols may take anywhere between several months to years to fully dissolve. In addition, when chemical paints are used to decorate the idols, these paints contain heavy metals such as mercury and lead, which seep into the water as the idol dissolves.

In Bangalore a study done by the Central Pollution Control Board to assess the impact of immersion of Ganesh idols on the lakes revealed the following:

* Increase in the acid content in the waters.
* The TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) increased by a 100%
* The Dissolved Oxygen content increased during the day due to the agitation of waters during immersion and reduced at night when organic discharge increased.
* The heavy metal content sampling showed an increase in metals such as iron which increased nearly 10 times and the content of copper in the sediments increased by 200 to 300 %.

Possible solutions:
Since the main issue around water pollution has got to do with the idol immersion ritual, several people are now suggesting a slight variation of this ritual to avoid water pollution. These include:

1. Immersing the idol in a water tank constructed by the government, instead of directly into natural water bodies.
2. Using only a natural clay idol and immersing it either in the tank or in a bucket of water at home.
3. Immersing a 'betel nut' which symbolises the idol and reusing the same idol every year.
4. If one is using a PoP idol, simply sprinkling a few drops of water on it as a symbolic immersion and donating the idol to be recycled for the following year.

To see photographs of the situation in Mumbai after immersion visit here
http://www.ultrabrown.com/posts/the-battle-of-kurukshetra

For more details and information
visit ecoexist here

Watch a video of the making of the idols