BRASS DECORATIVE WORKING LADY FIGURINE

Traditionally the Gadwa, Gond and Dhurwa tribes of Kondagaon in Bastar region of Chhattisgarh have been practicing the Dhokra art with lost wax technique or hollow casting. It involves patterning a clay core intricately with wax wires and then coating it carefully with a mix of clay and hay. The wax covered clay core is put in the cauldron of molten metal with an opening/hole in the clay mixture, where the wax is subsequently melted off, and space thus created is filled with metal- an alloy of copper, brass, and tin which enters through the hole. The outer layer of clay is then chipped off and the metal icon is polished and finished as desired.