Over a decade ago, Sandeep Sangaru visited Kashmir on a Development Commissioner Handicrafts project, to understand walnut wood craft.
Over a decade ago, Sandeep Sangaru visited Kashmir on a Development Commissioner Handicrafts project, to understand walnut wood craft. There he became intrigued with khatamband and pinjra kari, Persian crafts that had travelled to India nearly 500 years ago. The former is an intricate ceiling decoration technique created by interlocking polygonal pieces of walnut or deodar, while the latter is latticework (jaali) made with complex geometric patterns joined together without nails or glue.
His research showed that the design repertoire of motifs and carving styles were incorporated into furniture making after the British introduced it in the 18th century. However, today, these heavily-carved pieces - cumbersome to make and transport, rendering them expensive - are disappearing from public usage and memory. So the NID graduate, who felt government initiatives were not triggering a revival, has devised “artistic collaborations to discover new approaches through design”.
Revisiting Kashmir
Inspired by the scale and proportion of old buildings, patterns and joinery techniques, Sangaru has created a range of furniture that embodies the indigenous styles, yet moves away from colonial influence. “For the first time, I’ve used pinjra kari to design shelves and lampshades,” says the Shillong-born, Bengaluru-based designer. He admits, however, that the early days came with a lot of challenges - from inconsistent quality to the availability of raw materials (walnut wood is government-controlled and auctioned).
Tracking down artisans also took time: he initially only knew of Mohammed Ashraf, a pinjara kari expert who used to repair the jaalis of old mosques. He trained the craftsman to observe, think and create (using newer, easier carpentry styles); today Ashraf owns a workshop with more than 10 skilled artisans.
Sangaru, who does not own copyrights or patent his styles, hopes that as more artisans return to the craft, the original 50 pinjara kari patterns (of which only five are in use today) will make a comeback. The designer also stresses that he “doesn’t want to fall into the bracket of designing trendy furniture”; he takes three years to create individual furniture collections. His walnut line of chairs, like the Chinar Chudi (pictured here), is lighter, easy to assemble, and fits into contemporary interiors.
Putting paint to paper
The designer, who also works with bamboo - Truss-me, a collection of furniture created with craftsmen from Tripura, won the Red Dot Best of Best award in 2009, and one of its coat stands sold at Christie’s last year for nearly ₹2.5 lakh - is now looking into carpet weaving and the art of painting on papier-mâché.
Kashmir was one of the oldest producers of paper, and back then pens, a treasured accessory, were stored in exquisitely-painted papier-mâché cases, referred to as kari-kalamdani. Around the 18th century, the French transformed these into boxes for exporting Kashmiri shawls. The painting style was also used on palanquins, howdahs, and to decorate walls and ceilings. Today, the craft is highly diluted, with faux papier-mâché techniques flooding the market and the intricate patterns of flora and fauna being painted with poster and acrylic colours.
Sangaru wants to explore and restore the craft - going back to its original technique, using mineral colours. But with his attention to detail and the time and involvement he invests in the design process, we will have to wait a while to see how the contemporary intervention evolves.
His research showed that the design repertoire of motifs and carving styles were incorporated into furniture making after the British introduced it in the 18th century. However, today, these heavily-carved pieces - cumbersome to make and transport, rendering them expensive - are disappearing from public usage and memory. So the NID graduate, who felt government initiatives were not triggering a revival, has devised “artistic collaborations to discover new approaches through design”.
Revisiting Kashmir
Inspired by the scale and proportion of old buildings, patterns and joinery techniques, Sangaru has created a range of furniture that embodies the indigenous styles, yet moves away from colonial influence. “For the first time, I’ve used pinjra kari to design shelves and lampshades,” says the Shillong-born, Bengaluru-based designer. He admits, however, that the early days came with a lot of challenges - from inconsistent quality to the availability of raw materials (walnut wood is government-controlled and auctioned).
Tracking down artisans also took time: he initially only knew of Mohammed Ashraf, a pinjara kari expert who used to repair the jaalis of old mosques. He trained the craftsman to observe, think and create (using newer, easier carpentry styles); today Ashraf owns a workshop with more than 10 skilled artisans.
Sangaru, who does not own copyrights or patent his styles, hopes that as more artisans return to the craft, the original 50 pinjara kari patterns (of which only five are in use today) will make a comeback. The designer also stresses that he “doesn’t want to fall into the bracket of designing trendy furniture”; he takes three years to create individual furniture collections. His walnut line of chairs, like the Chinar Chudi (pictured here), is lighter, easy to assemble, and fits into contemporary interiors.
Putting paint to paper
The designer, who also works with bamboo - Truss-me, a collection of furniture created with craftsmen from Tripura, won the Red Dot Best of Best award in 2009, and one of its coat stands sold at Christie’s last year for nearly ₹2.5 lakh - is now looking into carpet weaving and the art of painting on papier-mâché.
Kashmir was one of the oldest producers of paper, and back then pens, a treasured accessory, were stored in exquisitely-painted papier-mâché cases, referred to as kari-kalamdani. Around the 18th century, the French transformed these into boxes for exporting Kashmiri shawls. The painting style was also used on palanquins, howdahs, and to decorate walls and ceilings. Today, the craft is highly diluted, with faux papier-mâché techniques flooding the market and the intricate patterns of flora and fauna being painted with poster and acrylic colours.
Sangaru wants to explore and restore the craft - going back to its original technique, using mineral colours. But with his attention to detail and the time and involvement he invests in the design process, we will have to wait a while to see how the contemporary intervention evolves.