Workshop on Dhokra art

Here's a chance to know more about the unique Dhokra art or bell-metal craft of Chhattisgarh.
A seven-day workshop on Dhokra art will be held from August 3 at the Crafts Museum here which will be free to the public.
To be conducted by noted Dhokra artist from Ektaal village of Chhattisgarh's Raigarh district Purnachanda Pradhan, the workshop is being organised as part of the SwayamShilp (My Art) initiative of Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) Foundation.
The initiative will see a series of workshops being organised in the national capital on different forms of tribal arts and crafts from across the country in a bid to bring the art and the artists onto the national platform, says Shallu Jindal, co-chairperson of JSPL Foundation.

The Ghadwas tribes of Bastar and Jharas of Raigarh practice normally the Dhokra art with lost wax technique or hollow casting. It involves patterning of a clay core with wax ribbons and then coating it with a mixture of clay and hay. The wax is subsequently melted off and the cavity formed is filled with molten metal.
The term Dhokra is believed to have derived from the 'Dhokra Damar' tribe, who traditionally employ the lost wax technique to cast non-ferrous metals.