ISRO inspires Channapatna rockets as engineers collaborate with artisans

“What we do is rocket science,” proclaims a tee-shirt. Created by Indic Inspirations for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the tee -shirt is part of its Vyom assortment. Most of the merchandise, which embody jigsaw puzzles based mostly on Mangalyaan, rocket collectible matchboxes, mySpace PSLV notebooks and fridge magnets, come with a storyline.

“This collection is about ISRO’s achievements in space science and technology. We had to create a line that would interest a child and adults alike,” says Yogesh Dandekar, architect and chief product designer of Indic Inspirations. “India is doing a lot of work in space technology and people should know about this.” He provides that minute particulars on the fashions construct up curiosity.

When Indic Inspirations approached ISRO with a pitch to inform its story in a recent type, ISRO reverted with a voluminous 10 GB of knowledge. This included a listing crammed with drawings of ISRO rockets, photos taken by Cartosat, IRS satellites, by Mangalayaan and Chandrayaan, as properly as movies of their launches. A line of fifty merchandise was created from this.

A 3rd technology artisanal engineering firm from Moradabad, identified for die casting, was roped in to fabricate medallions; Channapatna artisans, in home designers and a “passionate IIT Chennai engineer” labored to create the rocket formed pencil box-to denote the PSLVs 4 stages- boosters, payload fairing and the satellite tv for pc. “Channapatna uses lacquerware techniques with natural colours and dyes,” explains social entrepreneur and founding father of Indic Inspirations, Sunil Jalihal.

Since 2014, Indic Inspirations has been working with artisans and craftspeople for the Heart For Art Charitable Project that was set as much as assist India’s artisans join with customers. In 2019, it launched a recent language to relate tales of India utilizing utilitarian merchandise and souvenirs by introducing expertise at each degree of product design and engineering. In addition to e-commerce they opened a bodily retailer, Phygital, in Pune.

“There are various ways of narrating stories,” says Sunil, including, “We consider that objects stay on individuals’s cabinets and desks to be touched and felt. Our focus has been on narrating India’s tradition and achievements utilizing 65 indigenous crafts and artisan clusters who work with wooden, steel, grass, pottery, folks portray, masks and such.

Tapping into mythology

The model started with discovering methods to current mythology in a contemporary context, says Sunil giving an instance of utilizing the legendary demon king Ravana’s ten heads as a dart board. “He was a master of the Vedas but his ten heads represent the vices. We shifted the bull’s eye a bit in the dart board we created.”

Medallions, coasters, clocks had been created within the product line that instructed the story of Zero or Shunya. Subsequently the corporate crafted merchandise across the Indian Preamble, Flag and Constitution. “Our Constitution, besides being a legal document, is also a work of art. It was calligraphed by Prem Behari Narain Raizada, and illustrated by Nandalal Bose and his team. So, we have used original “constitution paper” that was used to border the unique structure doc, to border the Preamble and such,” says Sunil.

Some of the merchandise obtainable
| Photo Credit: ISRO

Indic Inspirations additionally labored with artisans of Pattamadai in Tamil Nadu to revive the dying craft of weaving mats utilizing darbha grass to create stylish yoga mats. It helped revive a dying and historical pottery craft in Kutch and recreated a Bidri work betel-leaf field that’s on the Sotheby’s Museum in London.

Harking again to the house assortment, Sunil is happy that they’re first registered merchandisers of ISRO and function with them in opposition to a nominal license charge and a algorithm. He says the merchandise have related properly with college students, house watchers, astronomers and lay customers, including {that a} board recreation based mostly on the Mars Mission is quickly to be launched.