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| Sunday, 18 September 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Comforting
sense of tradition
by Aditha Dissanayake If you ever find yourself with time on your hands on a weekday morning, here is where you should be; at the Folk Art Centre of the National Crafts Council at Pelwatta, Battaramulla. Open everyday of the week from Monday to Friday, the showroom at the centre offers the city dwellers as well as the visitors the opportunity to buy traditional arts and crafts at the lowest possible price. According to Shyamali, one of the development assistants at the Marketing Section, the showroom is more a welfare project and is not profit-oriented. "Our aim is to provide the rural craftsmen a place to sell their products and, to make them popular among the local customers", explains Shyamali. The gift items on sale, ranging from ornaments made of sea-shells to t-shirts are gentle on everybody's wallets. Prices range from Rs. 75.00 to Rs. 300.00. What makes the Folk Art Centre special however, apart from the lush greenery, with the rays of the sun drawing cartoons on the brick paths are the small huts in which the craftsmen create their exquisite products. Making one recall how, in times of yore, kings bestowed on craftsmen grants of state land and other privileges, Wimalasiri Perera working in the hut allocated for "Cane crafts" is grateful to the National Arts Council for providing him a workshop and for giving him the opportunity to display his creations to a worldwide audience. Continuing one of the oldest crafts in the country, woodcarving, is Sumanaratna who had received training from a programme conducted by the Crafts Council and who is now self-employed, producing exquisite artefacts which include: Clocks made from the trunks of pine trees and mirrors with delicately carved frames etc. Next door is Gamini Wijesundara's Batik workshop where he produces sarongs, blouses and skirts in a plethora of flamboyant colours. A few feet away sits Mali Pathirana inside the hut called "Paper tool". If there ever was a craft which needed great patience, this certainly is it. Having learnt this intricate craft through books, Mali is proud of the award she won at a competition for craftsmen organised by the Western Provincial Council recently. Udumbara, working in her hut with the flying shuttles says she is ready to weave saris, sarongs, bed-sheets and pillowcases based on the customers specific requirements. With the demand for her creations exceeding supply she believes the high quality of her products is no match when compared with the quality of machine made textiles. Another "must-see" at the Folk Art Centre is the museum which houses a collection of masks, puppets, musical instruments and furniture. According to Media Assistant Director Saman Madalakanda, the collection on display is made of products which have won awards at national competitions and which have been purchased from the craftsmen by the National Crafts Council. The grinning face of Nochci, the collection of "sanni" masks used to cure various illnesses and the majestic masks of King Mahasmmamatha and Queen Manikpala provide entertainment and enlightenment to anybody interested in rural traditions. "The museum should be marked as one of the places not to be missed by school children from outstations who come to Colombo on class excursions", says Ananda Jayasinghe, one of the Assistant Development Officers of the Crafts Council. Talking about the efforts to help the tsunami-affected craftsmen in the South, Director J.M.T. Jayasundara says a sum of Rs.2 million was donated to craftsmen who had lost their houses and machinery on Boxing Day 2004. The most affected according to the Director were those engaged in lace making, wood-carving and the jewellery industry. With the hope of rebuilding the lace industry in Megalle the National Crafts Council is planning to build a common utility centre with UNDP assistance. The Council has already distributed 'beeralu' pillows and the other tools needed for crocheting among 150 lace-makers in the South. To watch skilled hands create objects of utility and aesthetic delight under the gaze of the visitors in calm, soothing surroundings away from the stress-filled mechanised world, the Folk Art Centre is surely the best place to be on a weekday morning for that marvellously comforting sense of tradition - an overdose of which will never go amiss. |
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