Environment Friendly: Idol Making Process using Clay

Clay Idol Making Process:

When you ask Bhandari-Brothers from Karki, about the process involved in making the Ganesha idol, this the way they explain it. 

"The idols are made of natural clay. The process consists of many stages from beginning to the completion of the final touch up."

"Initially a load of natural clay is taken from the nearest place where the natural clay is available abundantly. Every year we bring the clay from Heggarane, Sirsi, a village in Uttar Kannada district."

A load of Natural Clay

"Using this clay directly we can't use it for making the idols as it will be hard in nature. So, we need to blend it properly by mixing Natural clay with a proper amount of water to form Dough." 

Properly blended natural clay 

"Using this blended clay, we start making the idols by giving the required shape appropriately. For this some time we use some amount of coir (coconut shell hair). These coir is used for the wet inner portion of the idol to make the structure study and more stable ( we can see those coir in below images). As the clay is quite wet in nature the possibility of break-down is more, so some sticks are also used as a support to them. This sticks are removed once the idol get dried/hardened."

Start making the idol 

"Once the idol get hardened, we need to do finishing by using a small amount of oil and the proper equipment. This results to a smooth and shiny surface to the idols. This finishing helps to remove all the humps and bumps to get a well finished surface."

Well finished idols

"After that we roughen the surface a bit by rubbing the well finished idol surface using a wet cloth. This helps the surface of the idol to absorb the colors while painting."

Roughened idols ready for painting

"Painting the idols is initiated by applying the cement primer to them. After that 2-3 layers of fiber-color paints are applied as required, followed by shading and other processes of painting"

Under processing painting

"Finally we give the final touch-up by painting the eyes, hair and placing tilak on the forehead. Now the idol is ready for festival/pooja." 

Final touched-up idols

"All these process takes around two to three months of day to night work. This will be the daily routine in the month from June to August. " Suresh Bhandari said.