Crafts

Stories with this tag focus on handicrafts such as weaving, basket-making, woodworking, and sculpting, as well as many others. They may take place anywhere in the world, but include a specific angle focused on handicrafts, they may be traditional or modern crafts.

Yemen

These Houses are More Than Homes

This week, take a stroll through the traditional stone houses of Sana'a, Yemen with Mohamed Algadi.

OneDayinAfghanistan

Afghan Glassblower Keeps Art From Dying

Ghulam Sakhi has been a glassblower in western Afghanistan’s Herat province for 40 years, but this craft has been a part of his family for generations. Sakhi now harbors the fear that the artform will perish with him; his final wish, after his passing, is for the art to survive.

Economy

Recycling Trash into Art

Standing along the highway just outside Newlands Shopping Centre, Joseph Chiyambukira displays his wares for passersby to peruse and purchase at their leisure. For as long as he can remember Mr. Chiyambukira’s father Chiyambukira Takawira has been making handicrafts for sale at this market.

OneDayinAfghanistan

The 102 Year Old Afghan Leathersmith

One of the oldest man in western Afghanistan’s Herat province keeps one of the most ancient professions alive.

OneDayinAfghanistan

Weaving a Life From Reeds and Straw

Small, agricultural-based businesses are suffering the impact of Afghanistan’s economic crisis and the persistent drought devastating communities across the poverty-stricken country.

Girls

Apprenticeship Gives Afghans Hope

40-year-old Wahida Wahaj reopened a workshop that teaches girls and women embroidery, tailoring and carpet weaving in northeastern Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province.

OneDayinAfghanistan

Profitable Profession to Barely Making By

Jewelry smith Humayoun Khashi has been in the business for the past 25 years. He owns a store in northeastern Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province, taking care of his family through the business.

Economy

Potter Carries on Family Business

A potter in Afghanistan’s eastern Laghman province makes a living from the business that has been in the family for the past seven decades.

OneDayinAfghanistan

Journalists Open Faizabad's First Tailoring Shop for Women

As #Afghanistan’s economic situation takes a turn for the worst and jobs become scarce, women struggle to find employment that will meet their needs.

OneDayinAfghanistan

The Female Seamstress and Her Taliban Customers

Masooma Haidari didn’t give up hope and reopened her tailoring shop 20 days after the Taliban took over Afghanistan. What she didn’t expect is to be sewing clothes for members of the Taliban who have become her primary source of revenue.

Education

Education is Not an Option for These Girls

Afghan children are increasingly joining the workforce in a country marred by poverty.

OneDayinAfghanistan

Beautiful Woodworking, with Basic Tools

Afghan carpenter in the eastern Kunar province makes beautiful wooden products he sells on the side of the Kabul-Jalalabad highway.

OneDayinAfghanistan

Family Keeps Ancient Art Alive

— One Day in Afghanistan — Written by Abdul Karim Azim, edited by Mohammad J. Alizada and Brian J. Conley HERAT – Herat is a cultural city whose name is associated with miniature art. Herat’s miniatures are inextricably linked with Ostad Kamaluddin Behzad, a man who brought miniature art to its peak

OneDayinAfghanistan

Pomegranates; a Source of Fruit and Craft

Kawaras "baskets" are used to transport pomegranates, grapes, and other fresh fruits from Kandahar’s orchards to markets both domestic and international.

Crafts

Afghan Artist Struggling to Survive

Afghan artist Qasim Jawad is struggling to make ends meet after his unemployment since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in mid-August of last year.

OneDayinAfghanistan

A Symbol of Resistance, Pakhols Stay in the Afghan Market

— One Day in Afghanistan — Reporting by Khalid Khadim, written by Abdul Ahad Poya and M. Jawad Alizada, edited by Brian J. Conley ASADABAD — In a blue-tiled room jammed with sewing machines and pictures of natural spaces the eyes of several men dart between the TV and work as the cricket

OneDayinAfghanistan

Afghanistan’s Southern Kandahar, Known for Finest Embroidery Across the Country

— One Day in Afghanistan — Written by Nazar Mohammad Razmal Zaman, edited by Mohammad J. Alizada and Brian J. Conley KANDAHAR — A small red radio set up against the wall plays a local station in the background while two women sit around it putting needles through pieces of brown and cream-colored

OneDayinAfghanistan

Blacksmithing, an Ancient Profession Still Alive in Afghanistan

— One Day in Afghanistan — Reporting by Abdul Karim Azim, written by Abdul Ahad Poya and edited by Mohammad J. Alizada and Brian J. Conley QALA-E NAW — In the current situation where feeding a person in Afghanistan is difficult and people must knock on every door to earn something, a man

OneDayinAfghanistan

Mill Town, Old Fashioned but Still Going Strong

— One Day in Afghanistan — Reporting By Qamaruddin Poya Aziz, written by Abdul Ahad Poya and Mohammad J. Alizada, edited by Brian J. Conley SAR-E PUL — Although technology has taken over the world, in parts of rural Afghanistan, people still use tried and true methods that have existed for centuries, one

Daikundi

Little Development, Lots of Hospitality

Reporter’s name held for safety, edited by Mohammad J. Alizada and Brian J. Conley Oruzgan is a well-known province in south-central Afghanistan, which was split into two parts, Daikundi, and Oruzgan, the former mostly populated by the Hazara tribe. Daikundi is a dry, cold, mountainous, rugged, with a harsh

Crafts

Cobbling Together a Living

Reporters name withheld for their safety, edited by Mohammad J. Alizada and Brian J. Conley 70 year-old Karbalayi Abdullah is a shoe cobbler from Afghanistan’s central Bamyan province spends his days repairing shoes for customers in his little booth in capital Kabul’s western Dasht-e Barchi neighborhood to be

OneDayinAfghanistan

Namad Bafi — a Handicraft for the Mountains

— One Day in Afghanistan — Reporting by Safoora Suhail, edited by Mohammad J. Alizada and Brian J. Conley Ishkashim — Handicrafts portray the culture of a country and show the ability and competence of her people. When it comes to Afghanistan, her handicrafts are among the best in the world. Although the

OneDayinAfghanistan

Nuristan — the Land of Woodworking

— One Day in Afghanistan — Reporting by Bashir Ahmad Ahmadi, edited by Mohammad Jawad Alizada and Brian J. Conley It’s 9:24 am and we are walking on a dirt road in Balek village of Tetan valley in a remote area of Nuristan province. I am heading to 40 year-old

OneDayinAfghanistan

Hard Work, Lost Hope of an Afghan Embroiderer

— One Day in Afghanistan — Reporting by Fatima Ehsani, edited by Mohammad Jawad and Brian Conley It’s close to 8 am now and I am sitting in 45 year-old Ms. Maryam Sulaimani’s home in Feroz Koh, the capital of the province of Ghor, 400km west of Kabul. Ghor is

OneDayinAfghanistan

Only the Dark Stops Her

— One Day in Afghanistan — Reporting by Rahmatullah Bedar, edited by Mohammad Jawad and Brian Conley TAKHAR — The clock ticks 8 am and I am walking on dirt roads lined with mud houses in a village of Yangi Qala district of northern Takhar province. I arrive at Bibi Razia Dawlati’s