Bamboo is emerging as an ideal material for fashioning objects of art and home decoration. Nearly 230 different types of bamboo are found growing in the Western Ghats and South Indian States. This sturdy member of the grass family lends itself to be moulded into a fantastic range of objects of use as well as decoration. It even combines flawlessly with material such as terracotta, coir, metal and stone which limitlessly enhance the possibilities of envisioning ever new shapes, forms and uses.
It is long since bamboo has been recognized as a sustainable material and ideal substitute for wood. It works as an effective carbon sink, releasing 30 per cent more oxygen than other plants and trees. It gives rise to enormous amount of biomass which finds use in the paper industry and for biogas production. Trees that yield timber take decades for attaining their maximum growth and require several more years before timber could be extracted from them. But bamboo is easy to grow, can attain a height of 60 feet and a girth of 8 to 12 inches girth within five years. It could be sliced into thin strips which are ideal for varied uses. Latest technologies like hot pressing allow bamboo mats to be a replacement for plywood as well as ply-boards. With chemical treatment and corrugation, these sheets could even serve as roofing material. They are said to have a better strength and life longer than tin sheets. They serve as better guard against rains and provide relief from harsh sun.
C. Surendranath, Coordinator, Crafts, at the Uravu Indigenous Science and Technology Study Centre at Wayanad (Kerala), says not much attention has been paid towards developing bamboo varieties that could be deployed in construction and furniture where wood and steel had traditional advantage over bamboo as they do not bend. “For instance”, he says, “Guadua variety of bamboo, mainly grown in Colombia, is the strongest, and largest bamboo which grows ramrod straight and can replace steel or wood for pillars, beams and rafters.” But he suggests that there must be an initiative at the official level to import its seedlings or saplings and research on its adaptability to Indian conditions. According to him, Balcooa, a native variety of Indian bamboo, shares some characteristics with Guadua, but requires a lot of research and propagation.
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However, the Uravu’s major area of focus is processing of bamboo, providing skill training and establishing micro-enterprises that churn out countless bamboo products of use and art. Nearly 150 women from the marginalised communities who are being trained at the Uravu’s training centre at Thrikkaipetta in Wayanad district produce bamboo blinds for windows, dining table mats, pen-holders, bottle stands, lamp shades, gift boxes, bamboo-jute file & folders, variety of flowers and bouquets, vanity bags, murals, key stands, wicker baskets, and other items. But bamboo has a future beyond being merely utilitarian. It is emerging as an ideal material for art. Chief designer at Uravu C.P. Lenin has explored the immense possibilities in the field for the last 13 years. Lenin has fashioned a large number of lamp shades that use bamboo strips that were given curvaceous shapes with the help of blow torch. Lenin says strips taken out of tender bamboo are supple enough to be turned into any shape by heating.
Lenin, who mainly seeks inspiration from elements of nature like fire, air and water, moulds bamboo strips into fishes, leaping flames, conch shells, flutes et al. Even the nodal partitions of bamboo have been used by him to spawn a cluster of floating lotus leaves. When it comes to murals, Lenin combines reliefs on kumizh wood, a highly malleable variety of wood amenable to fine chiselling. He even uses coconut shells for the purpose of relief. Lenin says bamboo is flexible enough to be carved or pleated. Wires could also be drawn from bamboo which can be used to prepare fine meshes. Lenin’s rich imagination has turned these meshes, strips, wires or simple rings and reeds into myriad decorative objects ranging from buds and blossoms to leaping tongues of fire to fossilized skeletons of fish.
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(The author can be reached at maqsiraj@gmail.com)