Traditional craftsmanship
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Carpet Making
Since carpet weaving originated in Persia and travelled to Kashmir, the designs have a lot of resemblance to Persian themes. The carpets of Kashmir resemble Central Asian styles like bokhara and Turkish makes. Often, a cotton warp is mixed with a woollen weft. Silk carpets are also made. Common motifs include medallions, horse designs, hunting and animal scenes. Floral and plant designs in unusual sizes can also be found. Trellis designs are often combined with plant motifs. Kashmiri carpets are always hand-knotted. The knotting of the carpet is significant as it defines the life of the carpet
Channapatna Toys-Gombegala Ooru
Channapatna is an hour's drive from Bengaluru, on the way to Mysore. This town is also referred as Toy Town. Channapatna toys are the traditional speciality of the Channapatna taluk. They are well known and in demand all over the globe. Tippu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore, the present Karnataka State, was a great admirer of wooden toys. He invited artisans from Persia to train the local artisans in the making of wooden toys. Rosewood and sandalwood were also occasionally used in making the toys, but the main wood used was ivory wood for almost two centuries. They also use teak, pine, rubber and cedar wood.
ChikanKari Embroidery
Chikankari is fine art of embroidery made with white untwisted yarn with the help of a needle on a fine plain cloth. The cloth is generally plain white, pink, maroon, shades of green etc. so that the embroidery work is visible. Earlier chikankari was done on fine white cotton fabric called muslin or mulmul, but with decline of availability of material, gradually the work was started being done on other fabrics like Organdie, Cotton and Silk, Voil, Chiffon, Lenin, Rubia, Khadi, Handloom cloth, Terry Cotton, Polyester, Georgette, Terry voil.
Chola Bronze Works
The ancient craft of bronze or "panchaloha" casting of icons which reached its apogee of excellence under the Cholas is done by the cire per due or lost wax method. The icon is first made in wax and three layers of clay applied on the wax model which is then allowed to dry. When perfectly dry, the clay coated mould is heated over an open ground oven and the molten wax forced out through appropriate holes in the icons.
Conch Shell Craft
Conch shell craft is one of the oldest folk crafts of West Bengal. The craftsmen of conch shell products (Shankhari or Sankhakar) belong to the ancient 'Nabasakha' which is one of the so called nine craftsmen communities. The carvings on the conch shell reflect the social, mythological and historical expressions, rendered with the help of the traditional folk knowledge and technology.