Creative recycling

Beginning of October,2008,we moved into our present apartment and hence major part of October and November 2008 was spent in doing up the place. I made some of the decorative items in our earlier apartment from recycled material.

<-----------This item symbolising Shakti[energy], Chakra[eternity] and a pair of feet[moving forward] has been placed on the wall outside our main entrance. It is made from cereal box cardboard, disposable plastic plate, rope, old newspaper, poster colour and adhesive.

Patterns made with rope have been glued on the plastic plate, allowed to dry and painted. This gives an effect similar to dokra craft made from recycled metal------->I once attended a dokra workshop in Kolkata. The artisans from Purulia and Bastar were brought to teach the craft. In original dokra, bee's wax is used instead of the rope on a base made from clay.

This figure on the left depicts a Rajasthani village woman wearing a gathered long skirt[ lehnga/ghagra] carrying water pots on her head. I use this as a stand for diya[oil lamp]. It is made from two empty wine bottles, the upper one placed inverted on the lower one, joined to one another by a cork. The bottles have been covered with old newspaper to give it the desired form and finally layers of kitchen foil provide metallic look. This item is also placed just out our main door and I usually light a lamp to welcome our guests.

This plaster knight on the right has been made by carving it out with a knife from a cylinder made of plaster. To add support to the structure, an empty wine bottle used as the base has been covered with wet plaster. This was my first attempt at sculpting.