Adorn your house with wide variety of masks

 

Are you planning to adorn your house with wide variety of masks. Then visit the on-going national workshop on tribal and folk arts at Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya on Irwin road. 

A 55-year-old Manjulata Mahaptra has displayed various kinds of traditional art papier mache mask of Odisha, accompanied with her son Prakash Mahapatra at the venue.   

She has beautiful created the masks which are not only vibrant in colour, whereas of different hues. The creativity in the works shows the craftsmanship in her.

She has created masks which include mythological characters, animal figure, which include Buddha, Radha, Ganesh, Lord Jagannath, Krishna, face of elephants, tiger, leopard, lion, dear, fish and even hand bags, toys and much more are attracting tourist and foreigner in large. 

  

The colours used for the mask is extracts of stones, and greens, flowers which are available in nature. Prakash said that they collect the different colour stones from forest dwellers; later crush it and produce colours out of it.   

She says: “The masks reveal the religion, history. Wearing this masks the characters come alive during the Jagannath Jatra which will be held at Puri. Its learnt that, from long period this tradition art from came to existence,” says Manjulatha. 

Manjulatha has trained thousands of youngsters about the art from across the country, to preserve the rich heritage cultural art of Orissa. She has bagged awards for contribution in the art field. This masks are durable, strong and range from Rs 50 to Rs 40,000, depending upon the work on the mask. 

“A pulp will be created by soaking waste cloth, paper and other things which are natural. Later, a mud mould will be created as per the desired design and will be dryied under the sun. Later paper pieces will be  pasted over it, and colouring takes places. Blue, mirade red, gold yellow are the most popular colours used to make masks,” he added.  

 

“There is lack of awareness among people about the traditional art from. Measures should be taken by government to revive the dying art forms and continue the legacy for generations,” he suggested.