From early times textiles came to be associated with social and ritualistic events amongst the Adi, playing a key role in the socio-economic life of community. Like all tribes of Arunachal Pradesh, it is the women of Adi community who weave. Weaving is not seen as compulsion but as a sacred duty. While some Adi still grow their own cotton and spin their own yarn, most buy fine cotton or synthetic yarn from the plains or the local markets. Although most women today buy dyed yarn, the dyeing used to be done once using dyes made from leaves, bark, roots, creepers and seeds. Adi designs, though geometric, have a very distinctive style in use of form or colour, indigenous to their culture and tradition. The Apa Tani weaving is similar to that of the Adi in the implements and the type of weave but their patterns and colours are distinctive. The traditional Apa Tani colours are red, green and yellow obtained from leaves, roots, creepers and the barks of trees. The ordinary Apa Tani cloth gets its character from the broad stripes alternating with narrow ones. There are hardly any curvilinear designs in tribal weaving although in the Apa Tani priests’ shawl there are genuine spirals, some of which are actually curved. Bodos mainly a farming community, weave as a domestic tradition. Most of the bodo women weave and pass skill to their daughters for generations. Cotton is the raw material that was used for weaving but slowly it is being replaced by synthetic yarn. The traditional clothing of the bodo men and women is unstitched cloth. Their traditional colours are varying shades of yellow, including yellow combined with red. The traditional motifs used by the Bodo are mainly inspired by nature – water hyacinth, spinach flower, tortoise, mountain, pigeon’s eye, peacock and fingers to name a few.

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KU OR BUDDHIST figurines are made in copper using lost wax casting. The craft in Sikkim has its own peculiarities in the process, motifs and features. As opposed to the metal casting in Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh or Faridabad in Haryana, the specialty lies in the kind of materials used. Unlike the statuettes made elsewhere in India, these figurines have distinct Mongolian features and motifs. A master model is made from wax or clay. Every feature and expression has to be hand-carved to perfection. The entire model is prepared in parts and then pieced together to form the master model. This prototype is used for making the wax mould which is used for reproducing several wax models for casting. A rubber mould of silicon or rubber solution is made. This flexible mould captures every detail of the artist’s original model, and is one of the most critical phases in the copper casting process. From this another wax mould is made and coated with cow dung slurry and several layers of sawdust and yellow mud. A small hole is carefully drilled at the top which serves as the opening for pouring the molten metal – bronze or copper. It is fired in an oven. The wax image within the clay melts. In the hollow space, the molten metal is poured and cooled. The outer mud casing is broken to reveal the metal statue. It is finished by filing and polishing the statue. Swag is applied on it to remove the impurities. Lastly, it is buffed and gilded in gold or silver.

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Black and red terracotta items are thrown on the wheel in Jisidh .The process used is that of reduction firing. When the products are fired, those that must turn black are first put into a tightly-sealed terracotta utensil which is then fired, while the red ones are placed in the furnace directly. Due to lack of oxygen, the posts inside the utensil turn black. Women of Sonar tribe in Nonigaon make hand-formed and die-pressed terracotta jewellery to be sold mostly in markets of Shantiniketan and Kolkata. Other items include Bowls, Kamandal Surahi and Coin Bank.

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Tamtas, coppersmiths, fashion vessels from sheet copper for daily and ritual use. Copper called ‘tamba’ in Sanskrit, is regarded sacred by the people of Himalayas. Every temple has an object made of copper and every house has a copper pot to store water. The metal is known to have medicinal properties and keeps water pure. Copper smithery is a hereditary profession and is more prevalent in Haryana and Kashmir. Woman sometimes help out with lighter work. The tamtas work from home. The craftsmen buy the sheets from contractors who procure them from rolling mills in Jagadhari in Haryana. Copper was initially extracted by the tamtas from local mines, process which was a closely guarded secret. Pots are formed in to halves and joined with solder. The sheet is formed by drawing it over swage stone. The finished vessel is heated until red-hot and immediately buried in a pit of rice husk and acid. It comes out shining. The rim or mouths are finished by beading and handles are riveted on. The surface is fatigue resisted by peening. The concentric peening acts as ribbing and strengthens the wall. The cultural influences, Tibetan and shaivite, in the region are reflected in the motifs and forms of the vessels. The same vessel is made in various shapes for the Kumaoni, Garhwali and Nepali customer. The tamtas also specialize in another kind of decorative ware called Ganga-Jamuni in which brass and copper are used together. The two metals have different melting points and joining them is a specialized task. The traditional copper ware of Kashmir is created by three processes of shaping, decoration, and tinning .The surface is usually highly ornamented with a profusion of stylized floral and leaf forms, religious symbols (such as the mihrab or prayer arch), geometric and calligraphic patterns, as well as elaborate hunting scenes. The patterns are formed on the metal sheet using combination of techniques including repousse, piercing and chasing. The raised patterns may be further highlighted by oxidizing the depressed surface. The indigenous product range consists of luxurious household items such as surahi, rosewater sprinklers, incense burners, hookah bases, samovars, decorative plaques and large trays with stands which perform the role of mobile tables. A number of products are utilized in Islamic rituals - ewers and basins are used for ablutions and henna holders are used at pre-wedding ceremonies. Copper vessels also form a crucial component of the Kashmiri bride’s trousseau.

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Although practiced throughout the region that comprises erstwhile princely hill states ,the craft has come to be associated specifically with chamba owing to the patronage afforded it by rulers of the area as well as to the quality of the local craftsmanship .Traditionally ,the chamba rumals were silk embroidered square pieces of handspun and handwoven unbleached ‘mulmul’, fine cloth that were used to cover dishes of food , gifts to significant persons and offerings to a deity, or exchanged between the families of the bride and the groom as a token of goodwill .The embroidery was done in a double satin stitch technique known as dorukha ,which ensured an exact replication of image of the reverse of the fabric . Although practiced by woman from all strata of pahari society, the embroidery style developed by the woman of the upper classes and the royalty has now come to be exclusively related to the craft. Both the folk and court styles usually rendered the popular themes of the Raaslila , Raasmandal , Ashtanayika , hunts and chaupad , dice game ; the styles and colour schemes, however were vastly different. The folk style made generous use of brilliant colours including pink, lemon yellow, purple and green while the court form evolved a more sophisticated colour palette that consisted of pale shades ochre, dark green and blue. The court style reflects the popular pastimes of pahari man and woman from royal and noble families through the addition of details such as the smoking of the hookah, woman show talking to parrots, playing with a ball or dice or listening to music. It also derived its compositions, border motifs and floral ornamentation from the wall paintings of the Rang Mahal of chamba and the pahari miniature tradition. Often, trained miniature painters from the court were called in to draw the compositions on to the fabric to provide colour schemes. It is due to this close relationship with the painting tradition that the chamba rumals have been called ‘paintings in embroidery’. In recent years, artisans have been encouraged to reproduce earlier masterpieces in order to sustain the craft. Simultaneously, efforts have also been made to diversify the craft products to include a wider range of items such as caps, hand fans, blouses and bedspreads.

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Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Assam are the major centres of Brass work in India. In Haryana traditional kitchen utensils made by die-pressing and manually cold forging sheet brass, are part of every bride’s dowry. In this area where water must be fetched over long distances, pots used to collect and store water are an invaluable commodity. In Rewari, circular brass ingots are sand-cast by specialized craftsmen and sent to small industries for sheet rolling. Craftsmen at a second workshop manually shear them into rounds and die-press the sheets into hemispheres. At a third workshop the hemispheres are manually worked with huge mallets over swages till the desired shape is achieved. The joints and the neck are gas welded and the mouth is beaded. The products are vigorously hand polished with mud and tamarind and sandpapered. Finally, the walls are manually beaten with polished hammerheads to reinforce the sheet metal. The perfectly aligned symmetry of the created shiny indentations is testament to the craftsmen’s long practice at hammering them freehand - rapidly and with a single precise blow each. The craftsmen in Madurai are involved in producing brass ware for temple rituals as well as for domestic use. As the temple rituals became more elaborate, the requirement for specifically designed vessels increased. For instance the abhishekam, consecration ritual, requires water to drip constantly on the lingam, the abstract form that represents Lord Shiva. This is achieved by hanging the sahasarasala thattu, a plate with 1008 perforations that shower water poured from a conch on to the deity. The others like the ritual bath, and puja, worship in the morning, noon, evening and night all required different sizes and shapes of vessels, some of which were intricately carved. These traditions are still followed and hence the craft has been preserved over the generations. The making of these vessels consist of cutting the brass metal sheet, which are then beaten, shaped and bent individually. They are then joined together with a mixture of pithala podi, the fine white brass powder obtained when utensils are being turned on a lathe and polished. Sarai, a brass tray (sometimes made in bell metal) with a stem and a domed lid is found in every Assamese household. It is used during marriage ceremonies, given as sign of felicitation, used to hold ritual offerings or the holy book and greet guests with tambul, betel nut and leaves. There are several types of sarai; plain, with embossing, ornate, and with cutwork on the lid depicting the ten incarnations of Vishnu. A sarai is made in several parts and assembled by brazing, and shaped by forging or by pressing the sheet over a mould. Bamboo charcoal is used to heat the sheet metal and the various parts are smoothened by beating, assembled, brazed, filed and polished on a lathe. Embossing and cutwork follows. The sarai is sold not by weight but by the size of its diameter and is also sold without the lid.

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