Indic Inspirations brings to you a very interesting workshop where Master Artisan Bhim Sutradhar is coming to Pune all the way from West Bengal to teach us how to make the beautiful traditional Chhau Mask. You will get to make 1 mask from scratch with mud, paper and cloth and the other will be a ready mask which you can paint and add your own feathers, sequins, glitter, buttons, beads and more.

This 3 hours workshop will be held at 6 different venues in Pune.

Requirements will be provided to all the participants at the venue itself & the participants will get the kit (the kit will contain Clay, Paper, Cloth, 1 Brown Base Mask,1 Ready to Paint Mask, 1 Ready Painted Mask, Natural Colours & Kangaroo Hair Brushes) delivered at their doorstep.

Takeaway:

At the end one will take home 2 Chhau Masks. The possibilities are endless! Create your own mask using your ideas & creativity.

Date, Day, Timings & Venues | Will be discussed and setup with Schools/Colleges/Groups - minimum of 100 participants across 5-8 batches 15-20 participants per Batch

Registration Fees :- ₹ 2500/ per participant

For Details: - WhatsApp/Call: - +91 8411875144

THE ART:-

Traditionally these Masks form an integral part of Chhau Dance, a genre of Indian tribal martial dance which is popular in the Indian states of Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal. It needs extremely high artistic perfection and knowledge of the epic and mythology for the artist to make the right mask while depicting a perfect mood & the masks are made mainly for mythological characters such as Mahishasur-Mardini, Rama-Sita, the fight of Rama and Ravana etc. Chhau masks are made by artists from the Sutradhar community.

The making of a mask goes through various stages. 8–10 layers of soft paper, immersed in diluted glue, are pasted one after another on the mould before the mud mould is dusted with fine ash powder. The facial features are made of clay. A special layer of mud and cloth is applied and the mask is then sun-dried. After this, the mould is polished and a second round of sun drying is done before separating the layers of cloth and paper from the mould. After finishing and drilling holes for the nose and eyes, the mask is coloured and decorated.

THE ARTIST:-

BhimSutradhar, 38, is an accomplished CHAU ARTIST from Charida village of Purulia district of West Bengal. Bhim Started making masks when he was 10 years old. As his interest in this craft grew stronger, he started balancing his studies and mask-making from a very early age. He acquired this skill from his father who was a well-known artist during his times. Bhim has traveled to places like Chennai, Delhi, Goa and various other districts of West Bengal and has participated in many fairs and festivals held in these places. He conducted several state level workshops held in Jan 2014 & Mar 2015 as part of Rural Craft Project, undertaken by UNESCO and Govt. of India- Ministry of Textiles- Development Commissioner of Handicrafts.

Chhau Mask Making Workshops