Paint, clay, mirror pieces and a whole load of fun. That's what the Kutch mud and mirror workshop held recently at Goa Chitra Museum was all about. Participants were given a sampling of the traditional art work done by the Rabari tribes of Kutch, Gujarat with mosaic artist Shallu Sharma at this three day workshop.
“ Before beginning on the artwork, camel dung is used as a base. For the artwork itself, donkey dung is dried and sieved. This is then mixed with clay of fine quality and then used to design different motifs on the walls. Traditionally broken mirror pieces are also cut and used in the designs. These motifs are usually geometric ones like triangles and rectangle shapes . It is only recently that they have incorporated different motifs like women carrying water on their head,” details Sharma.
And while this art uses clay as one of its main materials, Sharma made some changes for this workshop. “ The tribes use locally available material for their creations. However using clay in Goa would not agree with the climate here. So I replaced it with jute threads which are easily available in the market.”
