MEENAKARI WORK

The arts and crafts of India are as varied as its culture, languages and regions. Here I bring you one of the metal crafts known as Meenakari.

Meenakari is the Indian art of decorating metal with enamel. It is delicate, intricate and quite colourful. It is a most difficult and intricate process of decorating the surfaces of the metals like gold, silver copper etc, by attaching, or fusing pieces made of coloured glass powders. Various mineral oxides are used for obtaining different colours. Various precious and semi precious stones are also powdered and used for colouring. Enamel can be transparent, opaque or translucent.

It is believed that this art form originated in Persia. The Mughal rulers of Persia, who invaded India, introduced this technique in India. The credit of introducing this art in Rajasthan goes to Raja Man Singh of Amber. He is stated to have brought skilled artisans from Lahore and established them in Jaipur. Since then Jaipur has become the main center for this type of work and today, the Meenakari work done by the artisans of Jaipur is known for its intricate designs, beauty and creativity. In India enameling of gold is done in Jaipur, Delhi and Banaras, silver enameling in Nathdwara, Bikaner and Udaipur and glass enameling in Pratapgharh.

Meenakari is done on various articles like jewelry-bangles, necklaces, pendants, rings, bracelets, anklets, brooches, furniture like chairs, small cupboards, jewelry boxes, key chains, trays, dinner sets, photo frames and other items.

It is said that, before introduction of the claw settings for holding the gems and other stones, stones were set in ornaments using Kundan work-that is embedding stones in lac and covering with highly refined gold and gold foil. Meenakari was often used to cover the back side of such pieces. So both sides looked beautiful.

The base metals used for Meenakari work are gold, silver and copper. These days white metal is also used as it is cheaper and quite affordable. Gold is the most preferred one since any colour can be applied easily on it. But only few colours like blue yellow and green can be applied on silver.

The Process:

This art form requires high degrees of skill, creativity and lots of patience. The artists who do this work are known as “Meenakars”. The metal article or the ornamental piece to be enameled is fixed on a lac stick. The designs are drawn on it by the artisans known as “Chiteriaas”. Motifs may include, flowers, leaves, vines, birds, animals like elephants, fishes etc.

The engravers known as “Gharias” engrave the outlines of the design. This creates grooves or pits for holding the colours, in which enamel is applied. The depth of the grooves when filled with different colours, determines the play of light. This also enhances the beauty of the colours by the play of light and shade of the light rays touching the enamelled surface. Then it is thoroughly cleaned and enamel dust of required colour is applied, and fired at high temperatures. The heat of the furnace melts the colour which spreads evenly. Each colour is fixed in this manner till the entire article I filled with colours. The colour which is most heat resistant is filled first and so on as the piece is fired a number of times. White or pink colour  is supposed to be the most resistant and hence applied first and red the least so filled in first and last. The ornament is placed on mica plate to avoid direct contact with fire.

After cooling it, it is polished with "Sohan” or Corundum or agate and again fired. It is then treated with acid derived from tamarind or lemon. The entire piece can be covered in enamel or just in parts. Gems can also be set in the jewelry as required and the setter is known as Kundansaaz " or "Jadiya".

Some Types of Meenakari:

• ·         Ek Rang khula Meena- Single transparent colour is used for covering the entire engraved area, exposing gold outlines.
• ·         Panch Rangi Meena-Multi coloured enameling, where five colours white, light blue, dark blue, green and red are used.

There are so many other types. My knowledge is very limited.

Black, white, blue-dark and light, green-light dark, red and yellow are some of the most used colours. They can be transparent or opaque. 

Here are some pictures of the Meenakari

This is a Meenakari Bangle done on ordinary metal with white and black colours. 

These are the danglers in white and black done on silver. I bought them to match my bangles above. But I could not get on gold coloured material. I am searching for a matching neck piece or even pendent so I can create my own neck piece with beads.

This is a brooch-multi coloured peacock. with stones.

This is a tray, made of white metal which is now popular as it is cheap and looks like silver.

See the way the meenakari work has been done.

See the beautiful colours.

Blue, green, red and yellow

This is the work done on the handles of the tray.

On the edge of the tray in the picture below.

See the way the small design has been done in multicolours.

Yellow red and green-flower, leaves and the vine design.

Combination of blue, red and green.

See the intricate design with blue, red yellow and green.

This is the Pooja thali, used for offerings to God. See the peacock design.


There are many more articles which are created by the Meenakari artisans. These make good gift items suiting every pocket. So next time you want to gift someone you can try these trays, trinket boxes jewellery boxes, pooja thalis, pens or key chains, pencil holders etc. 


Hope you have liked this.

Rangoli-29

Candies N Toffees

Rangoli is an expression of Indian women's creativity. We express our creativity through our Rangolis, creating new designs to suit the occasions like festivals, seasons, celebrations, moods, emotions etc. So the subject for Rangoli can be anything. It depends on the skill and creativity of the person for creating Rangolis on many topics or themes. These days we are creating new designs based on various modern themes too. I will try to post such ones when ever I can. Some of them, I have created and mostly what I have come across and kept a record of, which every Indian women who is interested in Rangolis does.

Here is one such Rangoli. You can see the candies or toffees wrapped in their wrappers.

This is 13 to 7 dots placed in between like this....

So how do you like it????

Rangoli-28

Lotus Rangoli-I

In India Lotus has a special significance for the Hindus. Since ancient times we Indians have attached special significance to Lotus. For us it is a divine symbol. It denotes purity, detachment from wordy things etc.. This is because though the roots of a lotus plant are firmly planted in the slushy mud at the bottom of the ponds or lakes, its leaves and flowers raise above water, it (Lotus) is unstained and beautiful, remains pure. Similarly there is a saying "Like a droplet on the Lotus leaves"- as the leaves are not wetted by water, the water simply rolls it off. So also a person should be detached from the wordly pleasures and pains but attached to God.

In Sanskrit and Telugu and perhaps many Indian languages the word Padma means Lotus. It has many synonyms like, Ambuja, Neeraja, Pankaja, Jalaja, Saroja, Kamala etc.

Padma or Lotus is divine, auspicious and symbolises Goddess Laksmi-Goddess of Wealth and Prosperity. She is shown either standing or seated in a pink Lotus and also holding Lotus in her hands. Lord Vishnu is known as Padmanabha-a lotus born from his naval  with Lord Bramha on it. Goddess Saraswathi-Goddess of Knowledge and wisdom, is shown as seated in a white lotus.

So we use this a lot in our Rangolis for depicting auspiciousness or happiness, wealth prosperity etc. Its is drawn in different forms and also in combination with other things like conch shells etc. A petal is known as Dala. So we haves sasta dala or six petalled, ashta dala or eight petalled lotus, sahasra dala or thousand (many) petalled  and so on. I am going to post some of the Rangolis on Lotus some at a time.


Lotuses are drawn in different ways in our Rangolis. Here they are....

By using lines

Six petalled lotus

Eight petalled

Many petalled....

Using dots...

Eight petalled

See the angular lines

Here the petals are rounded not sharp as above. I feel this is more beautiful then those above. I have posted many designs in my previous posts, having the lotuses as shown above.

Here it is freely drawn not with help of any lines or dots...So many beautiful designs are drawn this way...I will try to post some of them..But one requires a very steady hand...:)
Here is a lotus Rangoli I am posting....

13 to 1 straight dots...placed like this..

Keep an eye on my blog for more....