{"id":31713,"date":"2014-08-08T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-08T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uncommongoods.pro\/?p=31713"},"modified":"2014-10-29T18:16:45","modified_gmt":"2014-10-29T22:16:45","slug":"handmade-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/2014\/handmade-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Handmade in India: Uncommon Wooden Designs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Based in Austin, Texas, Matr Boomie partners with artisans in India to produce eclectic, one-of-a-kind products that support the aesthetics and ethics of its artists. Some of our favorite pieces, the Hand of Buddha Jewelry Stand<\/a> and Owl Eyeglass Holder<\/a> come from two of their non-profits, located in a town at the foothills of the Himalayas. There, over three hours away from New Dehli, is a small rural area historically known for its woodworking.
\n\"sugar\"<\/p>\n

With such a storied history in crafts, it\u2019s no wonder that most of the artists in this community learned their skills at a young age from family members. This strong tradition helps Matr Boomie create beautiful pieces that utilize the artisans\u2019 skills in intricate carving, filigree, and inlay work. While some of the designs are made out of small woodshops, most workshops are run out of the home, letting large, combined families work together as they see the project through from beginning to end.<\/p>\n

\"Village\"<\/p>\n

Run by Manish Gupta, this collective is devoted to the development of underprivileged artisans. The constant flow of work has helped unearth a great amount of talent that had previously gone under appreciated. \u201cIn the five years we have been working with this community, we have been able to provide constant work to more and more artisans,\u201d says Manish, \u201cthis starts to build confidence in the community, starts to make the art more respected, and the community can start to think about long term development aspects.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Village\"<\/p>\n

Intrigued by the designs produced by this region, our founder and CEO, Dave Bolotsky<\/a>, took a trip to India to see how the artists work within their community. \u201cMost moving for me was seeing newly built schools, pumps for fresh drinking water, and solar panels powering lights,\u201d says Dave. \u201c These are the hard-earned results of growing handicraft employment for villagers.\u201d <\/p>\n

In addition to exploring the town Dave took a trip to their studio to watch the artisans create each design by hand. Each piece is made using sustainably harvested Sheesham wood<\/a>, sourced through dead or fallen trees. Once procured, the first artist in line uses a man-powered machine to initially cut the wood. They then work as an assembly line to carve down the block into a charming nose<\/a> or owl-shaped eyeglass holder<\/a>. A final polishing using natural wax and lacquer completes the process, leaving a one-of-a-kind piece that harkens back to a generations-old tradition.<\/p>\n

\"process\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Looking forward, Manish hopes to continue the community\u2019s long-held tradition of woodworking by attaining economic stability for the artists. \u201cOur partnership with UncommonGoods to bring some of these items to market has been a key part of our work,\u201d says Manish, \u201cit takes time to bring a long-term change but economic sustainability is the key element in that\u2014 our work focuses on that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the foothills of the Himalayas is a small rural town, historically known for its woodworking. This Indian village is home to the artisans who handcraft a few of our favorite wooden designs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":32291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[743],"tags":[223,1410,1173],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31713"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}