Bottle Opener - Buffalo Design

Details

Bottle Opener - Buffalo Design is a brilliantly handcrafted Dhokra product offered by goroots. The unique home decor accessory does not only carry aesthetic charm but is all the more useful as well. Handmade using traditional Dhokra skills, the buffalo design bottle opener is yet again an elegant artefact preferred for its beauty as well as utility.The product is a sheer example of the diligence and raw techniques of the artisans situated across the tribal belt in India. As the  name  suggests, the bottle opener features a stylish buffalo face, indicating that the tribes are greatly influenced by their natural elements such as birds, animals, flora and fauna etcetera.The rustic bottle opener is further decorated with fine motifs and intricate designs throughout, resembling the artistic aspect of the tribal men and women. Attributed to its vintage charm, the Dhokra claims to be a royal work of art to possess. 

About Dhokra Art

Dhokra is one of the oldest forms of the art of non-ferrous metal casting. It is the tribes of Gadwas, Dhurwas and Gonds that still practise the 4000-year old art, which follows the lost wax casting technique or Cire Perdue is called as Dhokra.

The metal workers make a living by handcrafting, moulding and casting the brass or the Dhokra, as it is regionally referred to as.The art originates from the central and eastern Indian states including Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa and Jharkhand along with West Bengal, where the art originally belongs to. The tribal group of the metal workers initially travelled from the remote interiors of West Bengal to down south, as far as Kerala and right up to the western state of Rajasthan as well.

As the art of Dhokra handicraft had been adopted by most of the culture-rich states of India, the technique was tailored by the indigenous artisans of various regions, based on their natural surroundings and availability of resources.

Hence, the Dhokra art of one region would strikingly differ from the other.
 
Procedure
 
As the word Dhokra also describes a certain sect of the tribes who perform the art of metal casting using the lost wax techniques of solid casting and hollow casting, which initially involves treating the coarse clay mould to high temperatures in an oven or by drying in the sun.

The beeswax is drawn into stripes and fine wires in order to wrap them around the heated clay in order to produce a similar, though softer mould. The beeswax is mixed with resinous gum and then boiled in mustard oil.

The model is then evenly coated with a very thin layer of wet clay, the stage that lets fine details of the replica to make an impression on the clay.

Before the clay is added to the molten metal, the clay is either heated or sundried and the mould is carefully heated to high degree centigrade until the wax melts in the process leaving a cavity behind.

The hollow cavity is then filled with a molten metal and set aside to cool off. Finally, the clay mould is broken and the object is taken out for the purpose of cleaning and polishing.

Before providing final touches to the brassware, the Dhokra artists chisel and polish the artefact using herbal colours.
 
Region

The unique Dhokra art of metal casting is practised in the rural areas of Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal. The Dhokra handicraft is exclusive to the region and none other than the sculptors can produce similar artefacts.