The Odisha crafts fair organized by Utkala Hastha Shilpa Society, features over 20 stalls selling a wide range of handlooms and handicrafts. Artisans from the eastern states have put up Ikat saris, salwars and kurtis, Bandhini and Kantha saris and a variety of hand-woven cotton and silk dress materials.
The highlight is the famous Pattachitra paintings made in Puri and Sambalpur district of Odisha. The paintings on palm-leaf are available in various sizes ranging from less than a square-feet to elaborately done wall-hangings.
“Though most of the paintings depict scenes from classical epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata, the figures of Gods are given a tribal look,” says Bhagirath Kumar, a Pattachitra artist from Bhubaneshwar. He says that the form is finding favour with cloth instead of palm-leaves. “Engraving on the palm leaf is painstaking and time consuming. Hence the price escalates. Nowadays we duplicate the style in appliqué work.”
A range of home-furnishings, home-décor items and artefacts with patch-work made in Cuttack, a huge collection Saharanpur wooden ware such as mirror stands, book altars, room-dividers and jewel-boxes and Channapatna toys are the other attractions. The exhibition also features a separate line of cotton saris sourced from other parts of the country. From the elegant Bengal and Kota cotton saris and the colourful Venkatagiri and Mangalagiri saris of Andhra Pradesh to the new-age light-weight saris made of jute-silk, the assortment is enticing. The light-weight section includes saris weighing just 40 grams, made from the wastage of Banarasi silk, cotton blends, tissue-saris, raw and jute-silk varieties.
Crocheted lamp shades, fashion accessories, chunky jewellery and colourful flip-flops are also available.
The expo is on at VS Chellam Saraswathi Mahal, Kamrajar Salai, till February 15 from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
