India · Metalwork / Jewelry / Pearl and Wirework
नथ / मोत्यांची नथ (Nath / Motyanchi Nath)
The Maharashtrian nath is a distinctive asymmetrical nose ornament built around a curved, often cashew- or paisley-like framework and densely arranged pearls, colored stones or beads. Unlike the large circular nath forms of several north Indian traditions, the Maharashtrian form typically follows the left nostril and extends toward the upper lip or cheek. Historical and ethnographic sources identify the nath as a characteristic component of Maharashtrian bridal, festival and puja dress. Traditional examples use gold wire with pearls, rubies, emeralds or other stones; contemporary makers also use gold-plated alloy, cultured or simulated pearls and synthetic stones, and both pierced and clip-on fittings. Surviving heirloom examples show a construction logic in which pearls and precious beads are strung and shaped on fine gold wire; contemporary handcrafted pieces continue that wire-and-pearl assembly alongside soldered gold components.
Risk level: Thriving · Not inscribed
Kotpad handloom is a cotton handloom weaving tradition from Kotpad block, Koraput district, Odisha — on the Chhattisgarh border — practiced by the Mirgan community for the Bondo, Kondh, and Gadaba tribal communities.
Zardozi is a metallic thread embroidery tradition using real gold and silver wire (zar = gold, dozi = embroidery in Persian) worked onto velvet, silk, or satin ground fabric using a hooked needle (aari) or hand-stitching technique.
Dyeing handloom cloth with extracts of Ayurvedic medicinal plants, so that the dye bath is also, in the makers' account, a remedy.
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Maheshwari is a handwoven silk-cotton textile from Maheshwar, a riverside temple town on the Narmada in Khargone district, Madhya Pradesh.
Bagh block printing is a natural-dye hand block printing tradition from the village of Bagh, Dhar district, Madhya Pradesh, practiced almost exclusively by the Khatri community of Muslim artisans.
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The Styrian iron working tradition of the Erzberg — the making of forged iron objects from the ore of the Steirische Erzberg (Styrian Iron Mountain), the world's largest open-cast iron ore mine, which has supplied Styrian ironmasters for…
A tradition of silver filigree jewelry from Sardinia — particularly elaborate pectoral ornaments (orgolo), earrings, and dress ornaments worn with traditional Sardinian costume — distinguished by its bold, architecturally complex…
A pre-Hispanic Purépecha copper-hammering tradition in which red-hot copper is shaped entirely by hand with hammers and anvils into vessels and decorative pieces bearing fret, rhombus, floral, and zoomorphic motifs, nearly extinguished by…
The Sandvik steel tradition — the precision steel manufacturing tradition of Sandviken in Bergslagen whose founder Göran Fredrik Göransson was the first person to successfully produce steel by the Bessemer process (1858), establishing…
The making of the resolza — the traditional Sardinian folding knife — and the pattadese (a distinctive variant from Pattada with a myrtle-leaf blade shape) using forging, grinding, and careful heat treatment, with handles of mouflon horn,…