Shaping Bamboo

Designs that define the bamboo market

Dastkari Haat Samiti

Dastkari Haat Samiti

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo products (2019-06-25) by Bamboo Enterprises UnitedDastkari Haat Samiti

Bamboo Products for Newer Markets

Bamboo is one of the most sturdy and versatile products that nature has offered many societies across the world. Young soft bamboo is perfect for making delicate earrings that women are
now selling at local bazaars and city venues. They are often hand
painted or lacquered or attached to beads. Clutch purses in dyed and plain bamboo are also sold as inexpensive handy gifts.

Earrings made of soft bamboo are easy to made and suit a young clientele.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo clutch purses (2019-06-24) by Tripura govenment emporiumDastkari Haat Samiti

Clutch purses in dyed and plain bamboo are inexpensive handy gifts.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo products (2019-06-25) by Bamboo Enterprises UnitedDastkari Haat Samiti

Bamboo Used in Hospitality Industry

A variety of bamboo products that  are hospitable, aesthetic and sustain traditional craft livelihoods in backward areas, are popular with home-stays in Tripura. These include bamboo trays, Lathe turned bamboo containers used to serve lemonade, and bamboo straws.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo products (2019-06-24)Dastkari Haat Samiti

In time, bamboo straws could replace all the plastic drinking straws in the world. Tripura has enthusiastic suppliers of such eco-friendly items.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo products (2019-06-24)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Drinking straws in bamboo are supplied in fresh green bamboo or dried yellow-shaded bamboo colours.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo products (2019-06-24)Dastkari Haat Samiti

The hollow portion of a bamboo suitable for straws has to be chosen from among those whose central hollow openings are large enough.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo products (2019-06-25) by Bamboo Enterprises UnitedDastkari Haat Samiti

Bamboo containers that have been made of lathe-turned bamboo for a good finish are used to serve lemonade with bamboo straws on a bamboo tray, all perfectly co-ordinated.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo Products (2019-06-25) by Bamboo Enterprises UnitedDastkari Haat Samiti

A variety of designs in bamboo trays are both hospitable, aesthetic and sustain traditional craft livelihoods in backward areas.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo container (2019-06-25) by Mahamaya HandicraftsDastkari Haat Samiti

This typical steaming box made of coiled and woven bamboo strips serves a lot of societies who still cook and eat traditional foods in India right up to the Far East.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo Product (2019-06-25) by Bamboo Enterprises UnitedDastkari Haat Samiti

Bamboo Used As Construction Material

Bamboo has fulfilled almost every need of forest dwellers and agrarian societies in the form of timber to build houses, false ceilings, partitions or to be used simply as eco-friendly scaffolding for construction or for fencing. All types of furniture from simple stools and tables to elaborate living and dining room furniture demonstrate value addition for high-end markets. Today, as home-stays are offered as a more sustainable form of tourism, most such established take pride in furnishing most of their facilities with bamboo products.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo product (2019-06-25) by Bamboo Enterprises UnitedDastkari Haat Samiti

A bamboo laundry basket in a bamboo homestay.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo product (2019-06-25) by Bamboo Enterprises UnitedDastkari Haat Samiti

A desk and chair in bamboo is for school children.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo Product (2019-06-25) by Bamboo Enterprises UnitedDastkari Haat Samiti

The pergola in the bamboo village complex shows how simply comfort in the garden can be achieved with simple slats of bamboo.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo pergola (2019-06-25) by Bamboo Enterprises UnitedDastkari Haat Samiti

The inner roofing of the bamboo pergola has a pleasing decorative effect

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo product (2019-06-25) by Bamboo Enterprises UnitedDastkari Haat Samiti

Bamboo strips give a textured finish that suits the bamboo village environment and keeps the house cool as well.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo products (2019-06-25) by Bamboo Enterprises UnitedDastkari Haat Samiti

Lathe-turned bamboo rods are made into plant containers that decorate a wall of a bamboo garden.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo lookout (2019-06-25) by Bamboo Enterprises UnitedDastkari Haat Samiti

A lifeguard’s lookout on the beach is becoming a popular feature at attractive tourist beach resorts designated as having ergonomically sound development policies.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo Product (2019-06-25) by Bamboo Enterprises UnitedDastkari Haat Samiti

Edgings of pieces that are made of wood and bamboo have fine detailing such as wrapping fine strips of bamboo to give the edge a contemporary finish.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo product (2019-06-25) by Mahamaya HandicraftsDastkari Haat Samiti

Even the hen has a comfortable bamboo home to lay and hatch her eggs

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo products (2019-06-25) by Mahamaya HandicraftsDastkari Haat Samiti

A Variety of Baskets

Bamboo fishing rods for the local householder who catches his own fish to feed his family or large quantities of sophisticated fishing rods for export have kept many local enterprises going for decades. Smaller strips of bamboo make conical fishing baskets that are best for catching fish in paddy fields or shallow streams. Smaller versions of the same shape serve as cattle muzzles. Farmers also need many types of storage baskets called dalas when vending their agricultural produce in marketplaces or by the roadside. They are easily stacked and light to carry.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo products (2019-06-25) by Mahamaya HandicraftsDastkari Haat Samiti

Rolled up decorative floor mats and wastepaper baskets are light, ergonomically appropriate and its use in homes and workspaces sustain many rural livelihoods.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo products (2019-06-25) by Mahamaya HandicraftsDastkari Haat Samiti

The introduction of a single colour into a natural bamboo weave creates an attractive fruit basket.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo products (2019-06-25) by Mahamaya HandicraftsDastkari Haat Samiti

Flutes and many other traditional musical instruments are made of bamboo.

Here they lie casually inside a nest of coloured baskets.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo basket (2019-06-25) by Mahamaya HandicraftsDastkari Haat Samiti

A bamboo shopping basket hangs casually on a bamboo rod waiting to be sold in the basket weaver’s home.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo baskets (2019-06-25) by Mahamaya HandicraftsDastkari Haat Samiti

Small strips of bamboo are not wasted. They are made into desk top items and serve as simple souvenirs.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo basket (2019-06-25) by Mahamaya HandicraftsDastkari Haat Samiti

Bamboo trays from Tripura made good office trays, gift boxes or serving platters.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo baskets (2019-06-25) by Mahamaya HandicraftsDastkari Haat Samiti

Coloured bamboo baskets from Tripura are set against a lightly white-washed wall of woven bamboo.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo products (2019-06-25) by Mahamaya HandicraftsDastkari Haat Samiti

A basket, as with every craft in India, is a piece of utility that is also a work of art.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo Baskets (2019-06-25) by Mahamaya HandicraftsDastkari Haat Samiti

A set of colour coordinated baskets suits customers during festive occasions when clothes, sweets and jewelry are items for gifting in different sized baskets like these.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo baskets (2019-06-25) by Mahamaya HandicraftsDastkari Haat Samiti

A customer in another part of India who has a retail store selling quality chocolates has given the basket weaver a standing order to supply as many different kinds of baskets he can produce.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo products (2019-06-25) by Mahamaya HandicraftsDastkari Haat Samiti

There are baskets tumbling out of every shelf in the vast collection at Manoj Debnath’s workplace and store house.

Each is a one-of-a-kind sample, a left-over piece from an old order. Each has a beauty of its own.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo products (2019-06-25) by Mahamaya HandicraftsDastkari Haat Samiti

A cornucopia of baskets in every kind of colour, weave and design are made in Tripura.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo product (2019-06-25) by Mahamaya HandicraftsDastkari Haat Samiti

Manoj Debnath, weaver and wholesaler of bamboo baskets in Tripura.

Basket Weaving in Tripura: Marketing (2019-06-25) by Manoj DebnathDastkari Haat Samiti

Here he shows off his flute playing skills standing against his stockpile of bamboo baskets for sale.

Tripura Basket Weaving : Bamboo baskets (2019-06-25) by Mahamaya HandicraftsDastkari Haat Samiti

Read more about bamboo craft from Tripura here:
-Environment
-Process

Market
Credits: Story

Text: Jaya Jaitly
Photography: Subinoy Das, Jaya Jaitly
Artisans: Manna Roy, Baansh Gram, Bhajan Sharma, Manoj Kumar Debnath
Ground Facilitator: Ankit Kumar
Documentary Video: Subinoy Das
Curation: Ruchira Verma

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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