Terracotta – An earthy experience
Terracotta- its an earthy craft. This connects with mother earth and nature. I think this is the most ancient craft in the world. Archaeologists have found terracotta artifacts in many excavations.This craft dates back to the time of Harappa Civilization . During excavation near Indus valley , many terracotta artifacts were found:
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Image Courtesy – Google Images
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Recently in China also a huge collection terracotta Army dolls was found, which is called “Terracotta Army” . You can read it about this Terracotta Army in this link.
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| Image Courtesy – Wikipedia |
In India Bishnupura ( of West Bengal ) is famous for terracotta craft. Many temples are built using terracotta. Bishnupura is one of my dream destinations :-). You can find details about Bishnupura here . Even in Andhra Pradesh terracotta is practiced as one of the major crafts. This is widely known craft, may be because the major resource for this craft is Mud, which is abundantly available.
I was eager to learn this craft. One fine day I found opportunity to learn this in a 2 days’ workshop conducted by an art institute. I always rejoice the experience.
When I entered the place I could see all the terracotta artifacts displayed :
There were 15-20 people , who were enthusiastic learn this art.
To start with we were given a ball of soft mud, with which we started playing :-). I remembered our childhood days, where we used to play with mud making different statues 🙂
You can see here , how we were enjoying playing with the mud. People were not bothered about their mobile handsets also 🙂
These are the small items I made , after playing with the mud for nearly for hours!
The tray made by our instructor.Isn’t this beautiful!
The terracotta items shall be baked in the ovens at very high temperature. This baking gives hardness as well as the beautiful red color. We had to wait for a week to get it baked, since the oven was available only with our instructor . After baking the items I made had got beautiful red color , here they are:
The hand holding rose :
Some jewelry
A small Ganesha :
Overall the workshop was a great Earthy experience!
Recently learning Batik painting , soon I will share about that experience also.
Until then,
Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,
-Ranjana
wow..lovely experience im sure…
bishnupur is where my grandad lives..and i got there often..love that place 🙂
http://sushmita-smile.blogspot.in/
all these reminded me the history class of my school days:)..you well explained here ranjana..
That sounds fun! Kind of like pottery but without the wheel, haha!
Thanks for sharing this art with us. I always wanted to know abt terracotta… ur creations look very nice.
Must have been a fun learning experience!
A great post indeed, Ranjana!
Thank you:)
THE PICTURES & EXPLANATIONS ARE VERY EXCELLENT. THANKS FOR SHARING.
some beautiful pieces made by you..hope you enjoyed a lot..thanks for sharing..
lovely post …must been fun na ? 🙂 🙂
I have been to Bishnupur a couple of times and have picked up some amazing terracota pieces. These days you get some beautiful ornamental pieces..The terracota temple is amazing. Sadly,some panels are getting damaged.
The workshop must have been fun..You created some very beautiful items :))
Thnaks for sharing, Ranjana.
Great going Ranjana and I am jealous of you now !!
I am also quite keen on learning this art and hope I too find some time and a class to learn this beautiful muddy art !!
Thanks so much for sharing your experience.
I do envy you. I also have great desire to learn terracota art. You have done so well even on your first attempt.