jewelry project - the crafts

Glass bead making in Varanasi
This is a thousand year old craft in the very old temple town of varanasi, and glass beads from here have found their way all over the world for centuries. The very simple tools and techniques used here means that endless variations of form, color and surface pattern are possible. Every bead is individually made and embellished.

Beaten Metal
The craft in Karamul, Orissa as we know it has a rather short history. 50 years back, craftsmen here worked with silver and gold but the market dwindled. About15 years ago, at the time of the ?first design workshop held here, there were only 3 craftsmen. The beads developed then found a huge market and after more design interventions, today there are about 300 crafts persons working in this area.

Dhokra
Dhokra is the oldest form of metal casting know to man. It is found in primitive societies all over the world and is an exciting and mystical process imbued with ritual.
In this process the object is first made in bee’s wax and then covered in clay. Molten brass is
poured into the mould. This melts the wax and replaces it. The mould is broken each time, for
each object. The simplest tools and equipment are used for this process. The entire firing is done using firewood, in an oven dug in the earth and takes 4 to 6 hours. There are no set rules or formulae to this and the whole process is so much a part of the craftsman who is doing it, and his judgments based on instinct are so fine, that it is one of the most exciting craft processes to observe.

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