Tikuli artist Ashok Kumar Biswas guides the students at Magadh Mahila College in Patna on Thursday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar

Students would no longer have to splurge on purchasing designer candles and jute handicraft from gift shops, as they would be able to make such products on their own.

Rotary Chanakya and Inner Wheel Club of Patliputra, in collaboration with the political science department of Magadh Mahila College, started a two-day workshop on the institution premises on Thursday to train students on the skills. On the first day of the workshop, more than 300 students of various departments of the college tried to pick up the intricacies in hand embroidery, block painting, Tikuli craft, jute handicraft, candle making and jewellery designing from experts.

Monila Sengupta, one of the organisers, said: “The objective is to create awareness about various handicraft. There are many embroideries that have lost popularity like Phulkari of Punjab, Kasuti of Kerala and Bihar’s Sujani. Here, the students would learn all such traditional hand embroideries.”

“I won’t have to buy designer candles from gift shops any more. I can now make such stuff on my own. I also learnt to make jute handicraft and Tikuli art. I don’t want to miss this opportunity. This kind of workshop is not organised everyday,” said Part II botany student Ayushi Kumari.

Tikuli artist Ashok Kumar Biswas, who was guided the students at the workshop, said: “Initially, students were not taking interest in Tikuli art. After I mentioned that it is a 2,500-year-old art form, students started pouring in,” said Biswas.