Miniature Christmas trees made with rhinestones from the Czech Jablonec nad Nisou, bring shine to the smallest hut. The place is located in Bohemia, a region where glass jewelry and glass beads have been produced for centuries and whose production temporarily accounted for half of the world’s production of glass beads. Bangles were delivered to India, glass beads to Africa and small rocaille beads to the Native Americans in North America. Even today, the region still produces beautiful glassware, such as these trees.
Since 1937, the Jolka Festival has been celebrated in Russia on NewYear’s Day. Jolka stands in Russian for „fir tree”, which is splendidly decorated as a symbol of winter. Originally, the festival was intended as a substitute for the Christian Christmas, which the Soviets had banned in the October Revolution of 1917. Christmas with all its gifts was considered a capitalist feast for the wealthy bourgeoisie. The prohibition lasting until about 1935 when the New Year’s tree was revived for the children, and celebrated with Soviet ornaments and decorations. Ornaments of a religious nature were not allowed, but ornaments that could be used as toys or candy containers were available. The themes of the small glass objects were as secular as the occasion of the festival.
Kutch, Gujarat, India: Lac, a material taken from insect resin, has been used in Indian craft for centuries. Coloured lacquer is applied to wood by heat through turning with a hand lathe.
India/Gujarat: Patan Patola is a double ikat textile, that means both, the warp and the weft, are dyed before the weaving. As a result patterns and colours are extraordinary vibrant and elaborate. With such thin silk thread it takes a lot of time and it´s an extreme test of precision and planning. A sari starts around 10 000 $.
Kutch/Gujarat/India: The walls of this Meghwali roundhouse in Hodka village in Kutch are constructed with whitewashed mud and dung and a lot of mirrors. Normaly the toran is hanging above the door, here he´s protecting the inhabitants agains the devils coming out of the TV.