nagpur dainty paintings on fabric and canvas are piled up at a stall managed by naveen kumar jha from mithila in bihar at the ongoing orange city crafts mela at south central zone cultural centre sczcc his mother shanti devi is a national awardee all the work on fabric or canvas is done by hand and brush we use natural colours jha told the media at an interaction organized by the centre on wednesday the patta chitra being done by ramchandra sahu of orissa are a bit more difficult to make as they have to be drawn on a patta made by powdering tamarind seeds and mixing them with cotton cloth and glue the colours are natural we use black made from kohl salt to make different colours and turmeric for yellow he informs the master weavers of bhuj in kutch gujarat have a colourful array of stoles and shawls on display our products that also include carpets have a gi tag now informs wankar poonam arjun and his brother daamji their family has won eight national awards our main work is with sheep wool but now we are also mixing it with tussar silk for making shawls and stoles he says the black coloured blankets that everybody wears in our region are multipurpose these 18 panna blankets are woven in such a manner that they keep the person cool during summer as air passes through it their warmth keeps out the cold and water does not percolate through them even if it rains wankar adds the startling colours and bold sanganer prints are attracting many to the stall of rajkumar pandey this art is being used more for demonstration purposes he says describing the tough process of making blocks and natural colours used for printing bedcovers he is selling it is difficult to compete with screen prints and machine made products as our items require a lot of labour and hard work he bemoans but the weaving business of javed ahmad malik from pahelgaon in jammu and kashmir is seeing a revival it had gone dead for eight to ten years but is picking up now he says displaying beautifully woven pashmina kaani and aari work shawls and stoles giving a lecturedemonstration even as he rolls out bangles or beats a piece of lac to form key chains islam ahmad a master craftsman of lac bangles from rajasthan describes how auspicious they are young brides and pregnant women wear them as lac is said to control blood pressure he says about lac which is collected from the dropping of an insect the best quality is exported as it is rubbed on the bottom surface of ships there is a misconception that lac bangles cause an allergy we have to produce at least 17 certificates abroad to establish its safety ahmad adds