Famous Art & Crafts of Rajasthan

So does colorful turbans comes in your mind when you ever think about Rajasthan? As i mentioned about different old school of painting in previous post, Rajasthan and its craft is also source of endless fascination.

Craft is a wide domain and surprisingly Rajasthan is specialized in most of forms of craft. In the field of textiles, waeving, tie-dyedworks known as 'Bandhani' and block painting are very famous.

Silver jewellery is extensively used, huge and chunky, worn around the ankles arms, waist and neck.. Meenakari the art of enamelling on the gold and silver, is an exquisite craft still practiced in the town of Nathdwara, near Udaipur and Jaipur. Kundan are enamel jewellery inlaid in precius stones are also available and used widely. Emerald, Garnet, amethyst, topaz are all found locally.

On more interesting thing to look for is 'Jutis', slippers made out of lanned and dyed leather, embroidered, gouged, studded.

The strength of Rajasthani crafts is that they have been always embedded deeply in everyday lives of the pepple and were not merely produced for the court or urban market. Truly a place to find an enormous variety of objects to select from as mementos.

If we go with city based specialty, most of places have their own specialization since centuries. In older time people of those specific region were well known for their art and timely encouragement and interest from ruler of those region helped in growth of local arts. Here is some of cities with their specialty in art and craft:



Jaipur :
The jewellers of Jaipur are renowned all over the world. Silver, Gold works of the highest quality, Lac bangles are its special attractions. The Lac Bangles are believed to be worn as a good omen and available in many colours and design. Jaipur carpets are too making a mark in the Indian Market as well as International.

There are renowned Jewelers in Jaipur and the royal patronage of Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, founder of Jaipur, was instrumental in inviting the one among such, Surana jewellers in 1735 from Delhi to promote the intricate art of handcrafted gold, enamel, kundan, diamond and precious stone jewellery

Ajmer : The leather work of Ajmer and Puskar is popular and the quality is also to be taken note of. The final shape is given by the joint effort of the local men and women. The men do the tanning, cutting, stitching while the women folk do the work of embroidery and ornamentation.

Bikaner : The place of Bikaner has its own peculiarity. Articles are made of camel skin, sheep wool, carpets, woollen items and wood items are popular.

Jaisalmer : The desert city is famous for Mirror works, embroidered articles, woollen pattu shawls and other items of wood, trinkets. Silver jewellery and curious are of better quality and locally produced.

Jodhpur : The city is well known for leather shoes, sandals, water bags, fans, pouches and musical instruments. The Jhuttis come with embroidered uppers.

Kota : Home of the famous doria sarees, there are small units where sarees are made in all corners of the city.

Udaipur : A plethora of items like folk toys, colour full tie and dye sarees and clothes, turbans, hand painted fabrics are the best buys of the city of Udaipur.

So what you are planning to add in your collection from above list? :)