HAPPY HANDS

Waking up in the cool air conditioned room, I almost forgot I was in India. As soon as consciousness set in, I realised we had a big and exciting day ahead. Today was our first day at the Happy Hands foundation, and our first time meeting the artisans. 

After a slight delay, and a few thousand rupee later (spent at Zara..), our fleet of white cars  weaved through crazy Delhi traffic to arrive at the Happy Hands building. This would be our studio/ creative space for the next three weeks. 

Our first surprise for the day was the power was out at happy hands. The second surprise was the intense heat. We had been warned beforehand, but as the cliche goes, nothing could prepare us for for it. 

Medhavi Ghandi, founder and director of Happy hands gave us a brief introduction on the purpose of the foundation. Happy Hands, a non- for - profit organisation dedicated to preserving and reviving Indian cultural arts and crafts. An important point Medhavi stressed in our project, was that COLLABORATION was key. 

Then we were introduced to the Artisans and their techniques.

Akib the Ajrakh Block Printing artisan. He had recently completed a one year residency at Kala Raksha - a design college in Gujarat. 

Visit for more info on Kala Raksha: http://www.kala-raksha.org/

Akib’s major work. The piece took 17 days, working around the clock to complete. 

Haneef and his cousin Sikander were the masters of tie dye.

Naseem was  the expert of Chikankari embroidery. 

And finally, Sanju was the creator of beautiful Sujani embroidery pieces.