18/08/2026
Some crafts are so rare that you don't stumble upon them, you have to seek them out. 👀
Looking back, I feel incredibly lucky that my work has taken me to the people keeping these traditions alive.🩷
Every journey has been a chance to witness knowledge passed from one generation to the next, and to see just how much patience, skill, and history can exist in a single piece of craft.
Let us know in the comments how many you have witnessed. 🫶
Or which ones would you like to explore?
Long before playing cards became something you could slip into your pocket, they were carefully painted by hand. 🖌
Ganjifa cards once found their way through royal courts, storytelling traditions, and family gatherings, with every deck carrying its own artistic style.
Each card is a tiny canvas, reminding us that even something as ordinary as a game could become a masterpiece in the hands of an artisan.🌸
Imagine painting with a thick paste made from boiled castor oil using nothing but a metal stylus that never actually touches the fabric.✍️🎨
That's Rogan art. Every motif is drawn freehand before being folded onto itself to create a perfect mirror image. Once practised by many artisan families in Kutch, the tradition now survives through only a handful of practitioners, making every finished piece feel even more extraordinary.❤️
Kaavi doesn't begin with a brush. It begins with layers of lime plaster, where the design slowly emerges by carving away the surface to reveal the rich red earth beneath. 🔨🌸
Once a familiar sight along the Konkan coast, the tradition is now rarely practised, with only a small number of artisans continuing the craft. The walls still hold these stories, but the hands that know how to make them are becoming increasingly rare.❤️🫶
Among the rarest weaving traditions still practised in India, Sujani survives today thanks to the dedication of a few artisan families in Bharuch, Gujarat. 🪡
At its heart is master artisan Rafiq Bhai, whose lifelong commitment has become inseparable from the craft's story. Woven on narrow looms using a painstaking extra-weft technique, every piece carries c