Born and brought up in the ethereal landscape of Jammu, Nitika Gupta, an interior and décor designer, had a childhood dream to bring regional crafts to the forefront. "I was exposed to a lot of handicrafts. Since Jammu is the gateway to J&K and it attracts a lot of tourists, I grew up watching the regional crafts flourishing, fading and reviving (in some cases)," Nitika shares with us in an interview.
As she grew up, Nitika — a NIFT alumna — spent over 13 years gaining industry exposure. She worked in the corporate sector and acquainted herself with the new crafts of India. She was quick to realise that there was a huge gap between traditional crafts and customised home products. Next up, she laid the stepping stone to bridge the gap by embarking on her homegrown product design label Pine Cone, which celebrates the lesser-known crafts of India. “We engage with artisans of age-old crafts where 90 percent of them are women. We help them upgrade their craft and skills and make art more utilitarian and commercial.” Today, her design intervention is transforming these age-old crafts into beautiful home décor pieces.
The same is seen in her latest home décor and accessory collection, Heart and Homeland. The collection pays an ode to her home place of Jammu and Kashmir by reviving the local Keani Keam (willow wicker craft) of the region. Telling us about the inspiration, Nitika shares, “Basket-weaving is one of the world’s oldest crafts, and one of the most distinctive products of this craft is Kangri, a wicker basket used to carry clay pots filled with smoldering coal that local people hold under their flowing pherans to keep warm during the freezing winter in my place. It is not commonly used anymore. However, with The Heart and Homeland Collection, I aim to revive this craft in the form of fine quality, contemporary and bohemian-themed backpacks, handbags, and home décor products.”
The designer used the same technique and material in the collection that are used by locals. What she did differently was to give it a modern spin. “How to add a contemporary flavour and utility factor is always the most challenging. However, with fun rounds of sketching, sampling, tweaking, resampling and testing for each new design, the whole process of revival became exciting!”
This is not the first time Nitika’s heart has beaten for the crafts. Previously, she has worked with regional crafts of natural fibre basketry, weaving of water hyacinth and bamboo in Assam, water reed in Manipur, and salt reed in Himachal Pradesh. Next up, she is aiming to launch tableware and kitchenware based on a dying embroidery craft from the hills.
She tells us the challenges she faces in the arts sector and how Pine Cone is resolved to bring a change. “Finding resources for a new craft is always difficult as there is a sense of skepticism from the artisans' side. Some of them have been exploited by organisations in the name of empowerment. On the other hand, a few crafts have already died, leaving few or no practicing artisans carrying on the legacy. However, we conduct free artisan workshops and training from time to time to expose artisans to the world of evolving handicraft industry. We tell them how a craft-based business is run, how other crafts in the country are being revived, and how to make good earnings out of their skill. This has a ripple effect too: once we successfully connect with a cluster of artisans, word spreads, and artisans want to reach out to us on their own.” Nitika is soon adding a new craft to this collection.
₹1400 upwards. Available online.
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