The recently concluded Krishi Mela in Bangalore had a head-turner. Displaying bouquets of multihued flowers, garlands and greeting cards, all created out of used and damaged cocoons, the Cocoon Craft stall was stunningly attractive. Holding bunches of artificial flowers modelling tulips, dahlia and rhododendron, the stalls were swarmed by many a well-heeled women who were attracted to the novelty of the art.

Cocoon shells, either damaged or discarded from silk reeling units, have traditionally been considered a waste product which are dumped in compost pits for their protein content. But no longer so. They are being turned into art by a growing breed of students pursuing sericulture.

The project to make art out of cocoon shells is the brainchild of Dr Fatima Sadatulla, a teacher in the Department of Sericulture at the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) in Bangalore. Fatima says the idea of using such an unusual material for craftwork came to her by chance. During her days as an undergraduate student at the UAS in the late 1980s, sitting amid cocoons scattered all around her, she would cut a few shells into various shapes, paint them and create artistic motifs for greeting cards. The pastime grew into a hobby, and, still later, began to take shape as an artistic skill.

Having joined the department as a teacher a few years later, she began to train her students into collecting damaged or waste cocoons from granages and cut them into various patterns, chiefly flowers. She began training students of sericulture four years ago under an entrepreneurship scheme. She would collect damaged cocoons from the Central Silk Board office in Madiwala to teach students. She would even train women farmers during her project work in sericulture farms.

The production of this craft has also been undertaken on a larger scale at the College of Sericulture in Chintamani by Vijeyendra who teaches there and was among the early trainees at the UAS. The college has even organised training camps  in several villages around Chintamani. He says two NGOs, Aadhar and Swabhimana Sangha in Chintamani and Kolar taluk respectively, have begun producing bouquets and garlands in large quantities and are selling them in shandies in the nearby towns of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

Several physically disabled persons too have been trained in the art. The college which received finance from the UAS towards a revolving fund, is now able to generate enough revenue to sustain its activities. Vijeyendra says the bouquets and garlands could have a shelf life of two years. But careful preservation under glass cases can ensure a life span of ten years.

The transformation of cocoon shells into such arts and crafts certainly signals the emergence of a new art form. With districts of Old Mysore being the bastion of silk farming, the new art form has unlimited prospects for expansion.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> Supplements> Spectrum / by M A Siraj / DHNS – November 26th, 2013