Change of art

New collabs for Manipur's black pottery. Ganjifa cards at game night. North-East folktales visualised anew. Make way, make way! Indian crafts are getting a reboot

- Reem Khokhar

We knew when we published our guide to buying handicrafts two months ago that there was more out there. India's crafts revival isn't limited to wardrobe updates. See how a kettle, a set of playing cards, and illustrated folktales are turning into precious handicrafts too.

Call this kettle black

Manipur's Longpi stone pottery

At first glance, it looks like something out of a Dutch design studio. The pottery is heavy, smooth, in a distinctive soft black. Is that a kettle or a doughnut with a handle and spout? That jug – why does it look like a hollowed-out bamboo? There’s a coaster, but it’s also a jigsaw puzzle...

Turns out, the craft is not only Indian, it’s also generations old, and fashioned without a potter’s wheel. The technique is indigenous to Manipur’s Longpi Khullen and Longpi Kajui villages, where artisans mix local clay with crushed serpentinite rock, and use moulds, tools or their own hands to shape earthenware. The fired items are rubbed with a local leaf, which makes the ebony surface gleam.

It would have remained a niche craft, had one craftsman not taken a leap of faith. Machihan Sasa carried his wares to a local market in 1978, and caught the eye of government officials. “My father was not literate at the time,” says Mathew Sasa. “The officials helped him attend exhibitions at the Delhi Crafts Museum.” He kept at it, selling at fairs farther and farther away from home, training some 300 Longpi locals in the craft, and practically birthing a Longpi cottage industry. Machihan was awarded the Padma Shri last year for his efforts.

Sasa picked up the skills from his father as a preteen, and would accompany him to Delhi’s Pragati Maidan for the fairs. Then, in 2001, they had a 500-piece order from Belgian vendors. “My father felt it was too large a quantity to transport from Manipur to Delhi,” Sasa says. So, he transported the clay and tools by train and got to work.