Dokra art always fascinated me. I would go to the handicrafts fair and keep buying dokra ornaments. This time round, I got to visit a village in Chattisgarh where they make dokra. A rough clay model is first made from fine clay. Then a mixture of beeswax is applied on it.The wax is carved and designed. The wax is black in colour. Then another layer of clay is applied and dried. Then little clay cups filled with scraps of non ferrous material are attached to the base of the figures, with a hole for the wax to go out. Then comes the oven baking part. The wax melts away and the metal takes its place. This is why it is called the lost wax process. The outer baked clay is then broken and the metal polished t give it the final form. This art is practised in central India, West Bengal and Orissa.
1. Making the rough clay figurine
4. The Man and the Woman- wearing traditional headdresses
1. Making the rough clay figurine
2. Putting them out to dry
3. Sun dried clay figures
4. The Man and the Woman- wearing traditional headdresses
5. Cutting thin strips of wax
6. Putting the strips of wax on the dried clay figures
7. Putting metal scraps in little earthen bowls. These bowls will be attached to the base of the clay figures, which have been covered in another layer of clay.
8. The dried clay figures with the metal filled bowl attached at the bottom are put into the furnace..
9. Breaking the baked clay mould to reveal the metal figure inside.
10. The dokra figures out of their clay moulds.
11. Dokra figures in their final polished form
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