Sharjah24: Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council (Irthi) is at the 43rd Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) introducing children to traditional Emirati crafts and training them in a bid to keep the heritage and traditions alive. One such workshop involves making bookmarks with palm fronds, a quick craft work that gives children the satisfaction of making something useful yet traditional.
From its base in Sharjah, Irthi has been establishing pioneering programmes — both locally and globally — that preserve, engage, elevate, and empower the art of crafts and their creators.
Amal Bin Khatim and Alia al Ali from Irthi employ the Emirati craft Safeefah that uses dried palm fronds to create the bookmark. “Traditionally, it is used to make baskets or covers that can keep food hot or cold, but we have adapted it here to create something simple and useful like a bookmark,” Khatim added.
Young girls aged 10 and above from the Al Batayeh school in Sharjah eagerly got down to making the bookmark. They were provided with two fronds secured at the top with a long and thin leather rope, which was then entwined around the two leaves in an alternating pattern that gave a braided look when finished. The loose end of the leather rope was tucked in and the edges of the fronds cut with a pair of scissors. Some were quick to do, while others enlisted a little help from the trainers in making the bookmark.
What mattered was their interest in craft making, which Irthi has helped ignite at the book fair.
SIBF 2024, which will run until November 17, has opened its doors to over 2,520 publishers from 112 countries, and is celebrating Morocco as the Guest of Honour. The 12-day cultural extravaganza, organised by the Sharjah Book Authority, is themed ‘It Starts with a Book’, and has in store 1,357 activities for children and adults alike.
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