Staff Reporter
TIRUCHI: It is a celebration of bamboo, cane, wool and straw at Purbashree, the north-eastern arts and crafts exhibition. The magnificent-looking bamboo sofa sets that come with a delicate-looking tea table and laundry bins welcome you to the versatile world of wood.
For that north-eastern look, try on the Chanderi works that come sparingly on tops and liberally skirts and saris. Courting their share of attention are the cashmere shawls and Manipuri fabrics. The ubiquity of cane and bamboo don’t just stop with interiors. The delicate hues with subtle stripes on them make them an ideal material for lampshades, designer handbags and purses.
Joining an array of ethnicity are the Benares silk saris, which come with a minimum price tag of Rs.210, and Rajasthani hand-worked salwar-kameez. If you are looking forward to smarten your home with ethnic curios, then the marbles and sand stone dolls from Agra might be a right pick. For an elegant addition, rummage the soft-cotton handbags, wallets and flower-embroidered lampshades crafted by the member of Sri Aurobindo Society, Puducherry.
With its sheer intricacy and craftsmanship, the palm-leaf engravings and silk paintings from Orissa remain a major crowd-puller. It takes a whole 200 days, on an average, to create a masterpiece with aesthetic engravings on it. A plethora of traditional wooden toys from Chennapattnam entices the kid-groups, with its queer sounds and flashy colours.
Assam crafts boast the dexterity of their craftsmen in making a whole range of clay-made artefacts, entirely different from the usual terracotta works. Their terracotta wind-chimes, toys and other interiors are made of distinctive pastel clay with bright highlights on them.
The exhibition is on till August 21, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Makkal Mandram.