Introduction
As a heritage walk is inaugurated by Hyderabad Walks every year as a part of the Krishnakriti Festival, there was an opportunity of being a part of the creation of the inaugural walk, for the upcoming Krishnakriti Festival 2020.
This sub-section talks about the theme of this new walk and the recces done by the team for creating it. Centered around the makers in Hyderabad, it shows a glimpse of the various crafts found after the recce around the localities of Charminar. It also details out one of the craft, the lac bangle making and shows the initiation done for the promotional material for this walk.
Exploring makers around Charnimar
The theme of the Krishnakriti Festival 2020 is to explore the ideas around making, which is associated with traditional crafts and the craftsmen (makers). To showcase the local crafts and the makers, the idea of this heritage walk is to be centered around the different makers in the city of Hyderabad.
Thus the team explores the city in search of different makers. While exploring, there are certain logistical concerns kept in mind. These concerns include finding an area having a variety of makers in proximity, so that it could be fit for a 'walk' and people could observe the processes as well follow the explanations given by the walk curator.
After the exploration, the area found fit to conduct a walk is decided to be the neighbourhood of charminar. The makers found here work in an old traditional setup and the ecosystem of the making as well as retailing could be found here. Different workshops are observed in this area. These include minar workshop, kalai workshop, Varq workshop, Bidri workshop and lac bangle making workshop. Out of the different makers, one workshop, the lac bangle making is selected for the promotional material.
Selecting a craft
Lac Bangles making
To promote the maker’s walk, there was a requirement of promotional material to generate awareness about this new walk. The platform being social media, there had to be visual design done. Thus one of the process, the lac bangle making process is given a thought to be used for promotional material.
Out of the many workshops in the localities of Charminar, a few processes of lac bangle making can be found in this old workshop, situated in a lane besides the Mecca Masjid. Some of the core processes of the lac bangle making happen in this workshop. These processes include circling of the unevenly circular metal rings to go as a decorative element on the bangles and ornamenting the bangles with the sparkling gems.
Thus posts of illustrations and animation of the makers is given a thought and the approach to the illustrations is thought to be in synergy with the visual design evolved from the worksheet, flyer and the workbook design. According to the visual language, a traditional animation of makers at work is thought to resemble the making and to add a handmade element to represent the handmade processes. The maker selected for this is the lac bangle maker.
To start with, an animated gif is thought to be implemented, as the actions involved in the making are repetitive. Some of these include actions for the circling of the golden ring done using a metal stick tool which is hit repetitively on the bangle slided into a cylindrical wooden tool to make it a proper circle. Another action is the heating of the bangles to keep the gems intact. One of the important action is the rolling of the bangle with the use of the cylindrical wooden tool on a rectangular wooden block with protruding creases. These actions are sketched and later animated frame by frame.
Illustrations
Traditional animation
Process
