State 03 · Bastar
Chhattisgarh
Dhokra bell metal & Gond painting
Bastar casts metal by the lost-wax method, coiling wax thread by thread around a clay core before the bronze ever touches it. Gond painters next door build animals and forests entirely out of repeated dots and dashes. Two crafts, one district, both still made in the round houses they came from.
- What we are sourcingDhokra figures, lamps and horses, and Gond paintings on canvas and paper.
- Where fromMetal-casting families in and around Kondagaon, and Gond artists in the Bastar belt.
- What we are still working outWeight. Bell metal is heavy, and shipping it abroad honestly is the hard part.
- Likely price bandSmall cast pieces will be the most affordable thing on this site.
One email when the state goes live. Nothing else, ever.
In conversation
We do not photograph a single piece until we have sat in the workshop. This page fills up the week we get back.
In the meantime
Odisha is open.
Fifteen Pattachitra paintings from the villages around Puri, each one painted to order over three to eight weeks.