Crafts body documentary aims to revive indigo dye profession

Muscat: The Public Authority for Craft Industries (PACI) is working on the implementation of a documentary project to revive the natural indigo dye (Nyla) process derived from the anil plant, which exist in the Omani environment within the framework of the Authority’s efforts to develop the national handicraft sector and preserve the professions of parents and grandparents and ensure their continuity among the younger generations.
The authority is keen to activate programmes and projects supporting and caring for the Omani handicrafts sector, while expanding the pace of performance and craftsmanship based on quality in design and production while ensuring the continuity of growth of national crafts.
The authority aims at rehabilitating a number of national cadres affiliated to the craft centers supervised by PACI to the latest skills of craft creativity and production, as well as to qualify the craftsmen to be able to deal with innovative techniques and to benefit from the development of crafts and to enhance their social and economic role, which constitutes a stable source of income for the artisanal affiliates in the Sultanate.
The project of documenting the extraction of indigo dye (Nyla) is one of the important projects that the Authority deals with to preserve it from extinction, as it is one of the traditional Omani dyes that still exists in some wilayats, besides the other local dyes learned from the environment that are used in dyeing traditional clothes, in addition to the number of craft products.