At the Craft Revival Trust, we believe that access to knowledge through mapping and documentation is the basis of safeguarding the intangible heritage of crafts, textiles, folk and tribal arts and the bearers of the oral knowledge systems.

Launched in 1999, the web wiki www.craftrevival.org comprises a constantly expanding Encyclopaedia featuring information on the makers, the techniques, processes and vocabulary of the intangible cultural heritage of South Asia. The encyclopaedia also provides a listing of museums and organisations dedicated to the conservation and promotion of this sector, case studies of prior experiments in cultural and socio-economic development, a bibliography, and a glossary of terms, useful links, amongst many other features (see links above and on right). Today, www.craftrevival.org is the largest available archive of its kind online.

The site also hosts a Quarterly Journal dedicated to bringing new thought, information and work in the realm of the intangible heritage to the fore (latest issue is listed before). The content is sourced from a wide, credible and knowledgeable network from across the world and is recognized for its width of topics and authentic texts. As a current and open-source platform, the journal also serves as a forum for advocacy and empowerment and is now widely acknowledged as a platform for change.

The Miniature Metal Creepy Crawlies of Hazari Lal Lohar from Rajasthan
Aparna Bhatnagar, Founder Director Green and Good Store, Jaipur, Rajasthan
Today like many other handicrafts modern India has little place for their...
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Gyan Chaupar: A Simple Way of Teaching Spirituality
Anamika Pathak, Curator, Decorative Arts & Textiles, National Museum, New Delhi
Gyan Chaupar, the chaupar/game of knowledge/jnana or gyan" is the early...
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Making Space: Sensing Place - Metal Smithy in Bangladesh
Steven Follen, Senior Lecturer, Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, Media and Design at London Metropolitan University
In 2010, I was very fortunate to be awarded a ‘Making Space: Sensing Place...
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When the Spirits Speak
Geetha Rao, Head, Arts Umbrella
A narrow dirt road veered off, to the right of the main road, from the town of Udupi to the village of Kaapu. Dusk was turning...
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The Tanka System The Parsi Craft of Water Harvesting
Kavas Kapadia, Professor, Dept.of Urban Planning, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi
The Zoroastrians brought the consciousness of water related rituals and the...
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Parsi Embroidery Reviving an Embroidered Legacy
Shivaa Rawat, Research Associate, Indian Heritage Cities Network (IHCN)
The Zoroastrians brought the consciousness of water related rituals and the concept of harvesting water from ancient Iran. The tanka is...
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Stumbling Blocks of Hand-Block- Print Industry
Kumar Gautam, Policy and Advocacy Coordinator, AIACA
Printed textiles with ethnic designs and ecofriendly natural dyes were one of India’s earliest important exports and achieved...
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Textiles of Laos
Most of the cloth woven in Laos is for personal use rather than commercial gain. Women weave their lives, hopes and aspirations into textiles. Dreams of a good husband, many children, fertile fields, and protection...
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An Annotated Bibliography on Tharu Folk Art of Nepal
Kurt W. Meyer & Pamela D. Meyer, Writers & Researchers
The proceedings of the 1995 conference on the Tharu. The Meyer’s chapter gives an overview of Tharu wall art and architecture, with color photographs...
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Earthenware of Sri Lanka
The Sinhalese use a great deal of terracotta (and sometimes unbaked clay) products for ceremonial, architectural, and domestic purposes. Though the clay ware is extremely utilitarian in character, yet it...
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Handmade Paper of Bangladesh
Before the introduction of paper, the leaves and bark of trees, the palm and plantain, especially the bhojpatr and talpatr were used. Cloth treated specially for use for manuscript, metal, leather including vellum, and...
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Geographical Indications of India Socio- Economic and Development Issues
Kumar Gautam & Nupur Bahl
With Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs increasingly influencing trades both at the national and international level; harnessing trade benefits ...
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Three Initiatives for the Artisan Designer
Judy Frater, Founder, Kala Raksha
There is an old, ongoing, and passionate debate about the difference between art and craft. This debate will probably never find consensus, but it makes...
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Coming Out of the Shadow: Deconstructing and Codifying Traditional Indigenous Knowledge of Craft Practice into Mainstream Education
Ritu Sethi, Chairperson, Craft Revival Trust
These numbers should suffice to give policy makers a moment of pause - 135 lakh people, 70%, 6, 38,365 villages, 1000 clusters, 5000 years. In order they...
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When the music changes, so does the dance
John Ballyn, Industrial Designer
After fifteen years absence it was wonderful to return to India, meeting friends and colleagues from the past and encountering...
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Past-Present: Craft Communities in Contemporary India
Shabbir Hussain Mustafa, Assistant Curator,National University of Singapore Museum
As the words of then curator of the University of Malaya Museum Michael Sullivan insist, Indian textiles and imaginations of India have...
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A Directional Study Towards Empowerment - Finding a New Horizon
Usha Nehru Patel, Artist and Professor, Pearl Academy of Fashion
The concern on ecological principles is forcing the design fraternity to turn towards more sustainable design solutions. There is a strong reaction...
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Paniyan Tribe of Nilgiris District of Tamil Nadu
Sumana Ravi, Photo-Journalist
Any inquiry into Indian culture is definitely incomplete without a study of the country’s tribal communities. India boasts of the largest...
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Ecology and Design: Lessons from the Bamboo Culture
M.P. Ranjan, Design Thinker and Professor, National School of Design, Ahmedabad
Bamboo is being rediscovered by mankind in the age of the information revolution, environmental consciousness and space...
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Examining the Aboriginal Art Centre Model: A Case Study
Sharmila Wood, Craft Consultant
This is a brief case study of the structure of Aboriginal art centres in Australia. The purpose of this case study is to examine a model that...
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Meet “Lhasa Villages” in Lhasa, TAR
In the heart of the old Tibetan quarter in Lhasa, just a ten-minute walk from the Jokhang temple, is Lhasa Villages. Offering crafts made only by Tibetans, Lhasa Villages is...
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AIM ‘Art Illuminates Mankind’
AIM” Art Illuminates Mankind is a society registered under West Bengal Registration Act XXVI of 1961, established in 2003. A grass root level social enterprise, a welfare organization it...
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Recommendations for the Handloom Industry
Read about the problem, the initiative, the recommendations...
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Read responses and send in your own...
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View a photo gallery and visual documentation of some of the leading crafts of India...
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A hands on guide on how to use simplified craft processes to produce interesting creations. Easy to master the skills and techniques have been detailed step-by-step. Graded by age and level of difficulty...
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CRAFTSPERSONS ADDRESS DIRECTORY
NOW available addresses of over 60,000 craftspersons & weavers working in more than 880 crafts categories across India

Updated regularly
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BIBLIOGRAPY LISTING
NOW available a biblio of over 4,000 titles on arts, culture, crafts, textiles and makers, relevant mainly to South Asia.

Updated regularly
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Craft Revival Trust is in the process of revisiting the Guidelines to artisan interaction first set out by them in 2005 in the publication “Designers Meet Artisans”

Contribute to the research. Write in with your experience.
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Handloom Weavers:
A Focus

Read about
- the problem,
- the initiatives,
- recommendations.

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Accessing Markets
An enormous challenge faced by organizations and artisans is the challenge of accessing markets.

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National Award Winners

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Shilpgurus

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The South Asia Series – Craft and Textile Traditions of South Asia
- Listing of Crafts &   Textiles
- Listing of Museums &   NGOs
- An extensive   Bibliogrpahy

Tribal Crafts, Arts and Textiles of India
- Listing of 460   scheduled tribes
- Listing of tribal   museums

Remarkable Expressions In our World's History 1775 - 2008
- Speeches and Contextual    Reading

BOOK ON SALE
Designers Meet Artisans -
A Practical Guide

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Design intervention case studies from India and Colombia

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Best practices

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Guidelines for interaction between Designers & Artisans

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