Kashmiri artist Shahnawaz Sofi merges silk carpet calligraphy with Kashmir’s famous walnut wood art

Crafts from India’s Kashmir valley are famous across the world and to give further impetus to the industry, young artists and designers are incorporating new designs and techniques to create unique art pieces. One such artist is Shahnawaz Ahmad Sofi, who for the first time has merged the silk carpet calligraphy craft with Kashmir’s famous walnut wood art.

While Srinagar has been listed among the most creative cities in the world, the artisans and craftsmen from Kashmir have been innovating with the traditional arts of the valley. In Srinagar’s downtown area of Noorbagh, the artist is designing unique art products with the amalgamation of two Kashmiri crafts -the calligraphy silk carpets with the famous Kashmiri walnut woodwork.

After completing his graduation from the Institute of Music and Fine Arts, Shahnawaz started experimenting with new designs. He not only started using calligraphy for the first time but also merged the two arts together, creating unique products for markets across the world.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

“I have been thinking about innovation from the very beginning of my career, our craft was going through a bad phase. I thought of making something unique and new. I wanted to club two crafts together and I thought of making products using Silk carpet calligraphy on top of walnut wood art. Walnut wood is extremely famous in the Valley and merged the two crafts. As you can see the products behind me, the base is walnut wood and carpet craft weaving on top of it. That is what I created, and it will help the two crafts. The weavers and artisans can benefit from this. These pieces can be used as wall decorations,” said Shahanwaz, craftsman and innovator.

Shahnawaz has also been training his artisans to use these new techniques. He has held workshops with artisans where they were taught how to merge the two crafts together. Shahnawaz says that by doing so, he will be helping artisans from two different arts and help save the heritage as well.

According to Shahnawaz, the art pieces created by him have yet not been put out in the market, but he is already getting a great response from his buyers and orders for these products are pouring in from across the world,especially from the middle east.

“The innovations will always benefit us. I am already getting a huge response for these products. It will help all of us, the weavers especially. I am getting a great response from Gulf countries. The walnut never used to go to the gulf countries but after these products are made, we are getting a lot of great response from those countries. We need to create new ideas. We have to keep modernising the crafts,” said Shahnwaz, craftsman and innovator.

The artist says that the main idea is to revive the various art forms in the Kashmir Valley and see the scope of amalgamating various arts with each other. He feels that through new designs and techniques, the younger generation will get attracted towards the art and it will help to save these crafts.

WATCH WION LIVE HERE

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.