Crafting as a form of Entertainment

   

  CRAFTING AS A FORM OF ENTERTAINMENT

 Sri Lanka is a country where a lot of creative people live. People are accustomed to creating everything they want as well as extras. Simply crafting is an activity or hobby of making decorative objects eith our hands. Sometime people do that as their own business. There are types of crafts such as pottery, dream catchers, paper crafts, embroidery, handloom, beeralu lace, cane products, batik, fiber and textile, flower crafts, leatherwork, houseware and fashion...There are a lots of benifits by crafting such as relax the mind, improve the thinking ability, can earn money, and can get huge income by spending small cost. Let's see some crafts one by one. 

 Pottery of Sri Lanka is one of the traditional small industry. It is an ancient craft. There are three major categories pf pottery. Those are earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain.A lot of items make by using pottery. Flower vases, kitchen items, pots, decorative items are some products of pottery. Pottery is distributed almost throughout the country. Matara, Negambo, Galle, Kelaniya, Kegall, Nattandiya, Dediyawela, Boralesgamuwa and Meetiyagoda are some areas where the clay is available in Sri Lanka. Most of the traditional pottery villagers are found near these clay deposits. And also the pottery of Sri Lanka has a very long history.

 Dream catchers are also one of the crafting item. It has a long history. Dream catchers originated in Ojibwa culture. A dream catcher is a willow hoop with a woven sinew net or web on the inside of the hoop. It was said that they protected the child from harmful dreams and other dangers passing through the air. According to ancient beliefs. Dream catchers were employee to overcome nightmares. Now it is coming as a very huge business. Some housewives are making dream carchers as a self enterprice. Those are very valuable and very demanded. Lot of people like colourful dream catchers. When it comes to paper crafts some types are available. As an example paper quiling, card making, tissue paper, origami paper, construction paper, collage, washi, paper bags and scrap book. In the present paper crafts are very famous in decorating functions. We learnt paper crafts since our childhood. It is a hobby of people. Further, everyone likes that and colorful papercrafts are very interactive. Flowers, decorative items, wall decorations are make by using papers. It also a mind relaxing method. 

 Embroidery is a very huge industry in Sri Lanka as a crafting. It means the art of decorating a fabric with a thread and needle. Examples of embroidery are botel-bags, napkings, caps, jackets, pillow cases and saddled cloths. There are some types of embroidery stitches used are the chain stitch, binding stitch, back stitch and feather stitch. Batticaloa, Badulla, Colombo, Jaffna, Kegalle, Kurunegala, Ratnapura, Monaragala, Nuwara eliya, Puttalam, Trincomalee and Vavuniya are areas of doing embroidery in Sri Lanka. Now it is a huge industry which gains considerable income to Sri Lanka.

 Handloom is a further crafting. It is generally found around the island as a self employed. That skill has been passed down from generation to generation. Handloom products available in Sri Lanka are curtains, cushion covers and other household decorative items, sarees and garments. 

 Beeralu lace is also a crafting item which women are doing. Now it developed into a reputed household industry. It was mostly around the southwestern in Sri Lanka. That industry can be seen in Weligama, Galle, Matara and Hambanthota. That skill that is almost exclusively found amongst women. Beeralu lace can be founded in dressers, curtains, table speads, garments and pillow cases, cushions, chairs.

 Cane products are upcoming crafting item in Sri Lanka. It is famous in Bibile, polonnaruwa, weweldeniya where cane is grown. It is use to make baskets, chairs, tables, containers and decorative household items. Batik isa beautiful handicraft item in Sri Lanka. It is a technique of wax-resist dyeing applied to the whole cloth. This technique originated from the island of Java, Indonesia. Batik is mostly used in sheets, paintings, wall hangings. There are four types of Batik such as Batik Blok ( Block Printing Batik), Batik Skrin ( Screen Printing ), Batik Lukis ( Hand Drawn Batik ) and Tie Dye Batik. The Batik industry in Sri Lanka is a small scale industry which can employ individual design talent and creativity. Batik indury earn more income by foreign sellings. Now it is a very famouse fashion industry in Sri Lanka.

 Traditional Sri Lankan crafts are vital industries in many parts of the island. Sri Lanka is a small self-sufficient island. Even so, owning one is still beyond the reach of the average person. These crafts are the livelihood items of people who have lived in many areas. Areas with people specializing in different handicrafts are found separately in Sri Lanka. In the past people make crafts as a hobby or for self use but nowadays it has become a big business and even importing them to foreign countries is very profitable. Famous handicrafts all over Sri Lanka also help a lot in improving our mental health. So handicrafts are the best thing to do as an entertainment activity. And also, going to see crafts are also an entertaining activity of someone.