sasha - 25 years now

candles and lamps

Sasha hosts an exhibition of candles and dhokara diyas for Diwali in the shop. The candles on display are made by Asha Niketan, (for young mentally retarded adults), Silence, a successful cooperative for physically handicapped people and Don Bosco Ashalyam, a home for destitute boys. Also on display are handcrafted home linens and accessories made by Artisan Association, an association of more than 20 groups of marginalized textile workers and women’s cooperative.

The event is marked by lighting of diyas by Bharti Deveshwar, Usha Ganguli, Sharbari Dutta, Kiron Uttam Ghosh, June Maliah, Ranen Ayan Dutta, Tanushree Shankar, members of Cactus and Nilanjana Chakraborty.

exhibition at sasha for the festive season

To usher in the festive season, sasha’s women’s cooperatives and crafts groups have painstakingly handcrafted a wonderful selection of woven, printed, embroidered clothes, kurtis, saris, scarves, bags, jooties and jewelry.
The exhibition held at our premises, was inaugurate by designer Sharbari Dutta on Tuesday 16th September at 4pm and continued for a week. A special section for the young adult was also opened on the same evening by two of Kolkata’s happening people, June Maliah and Kiron Uttam Ghosh. This was Sasha’s endeavor towards attracting young people to traditional handspun, ecofriendly weaves and to create awareness among them about their heritage and the worldwide Fairtrade movement, which promotes trade governed by just wages for the craftsperson. Bikram Ghosh, the young tabla maestro, opened the accessories presentation as part of the festive season offering.

children’s fun week at sasha

Sasha has a number of producer groups who make children’s products such as toys, clothes, gifts, bed linen etc. In order to draw attention to their work Sasha had a crafts week for children between the 20th and 26th of August at the shop.

Wednesday 20th August ....... The exhibition was inaugurate by Ms. Usha Ganguly, a well known theater personality. It also happened to be her birthday and so there was a double celebration.

Friday 22nd august ...... Well known artist Shuvaprasanna declared open our pottery making session for children. The idea was to interest the younger generation in traditional craft. Craftsmen were present with potter’s wheel and clay to guide them.

Tuesday 26th august ..... Veteran rock musician Nondon Bagchi, Bangla band Cactus, tabla maestro Tanmoy Bose and well known Actress June Maliah inaugurate our session on folk music. Skillful craftsmen gave demonstrations on how these musical instruments are made. The kids tried their hand on in various musical instruments to make it a colorful evening with lots of beats, music and enthusiasm.

interactive session held at sasha on 4.8.2003

Participants: Alice Cicolini (Design curator and project manager, BCL)
Infinity Exports
Uttarsahartali (Terra-cotta)
Aditi Sehgal (studio potter)

Some of the issues discussed were updating and making craft to face the global market, role of the designer in the craft sector and how to motivate a craftsman to do something new.