Australian students help Indian artisans to make global items

An Australian university has collaborated with a design school in India to help highly skilled artisans there to come up with products with global appeal.
A small team of Masters of Industrial Design students at the Swinburne University of Technology have helped artisans, graduates of Kala Raksha Vidhyalaya in Kutch in western Indian Gujarat state, to develop products they could sell.
"The students designed ideas for products that could be made in India that would have global appeal," said Kate Bissett-Johnson, lecturer in Industrial Design and Product Design Engineering at Swinburne, who led the team.
"This project was not so much about the final products, but about developing ways that designers and artisans might work collaboratively and cross culturally," she said.

Each student was paired with an artisan and shared each other's ideas through emails on a weekly basis.
One of the goals of the project was that the Swinburne students become familiar with the cultural background and skill set of the artisans, so they could ensure a successful collaboration, the university said on its website.

Kala Raksha Vidhyalaya produces hand-embroidered and patch-worked products using natural fibres and dyes.
"It was important to generate design ideas that would allow creative input from the artisans, while maintaining their cultural heritage. So, it was imperative that the items produced did not appear culturally hybrid. The biggest challenge for the Swinburne students was to let go of their design concepts and to hand them over to the artisans for their interpretation," Bissett-Johnson said.

Prototypes of the products - a tie, a storage system, a jewellery bag, a decorative kite and a special occasion dog coat - were made here and sent to the artisans accompanied by a brief, patterns and instructions on how to make.
"A beautifully hand-sewn canvas package arrived in Melbourne recently containing the final embroidered pieces," she said.
"The Swinburne students have been doing the final touches to the embroidered pieces to make them into products. We anticipate displaying them in the gallery at Swinburne's Prahran campus later this year so the public can see this wonderful collaboration," she said.

The lecturer said the project with the Vidhyalaya would continue with a new group of design students.