wood craft_Gujarat

1. WOOD
CRAFT
GUJARAT

2. • One of the richest regions for wood-carving is GUJARAT.
• The cantilevered balconies of palaces in Palanpur and Bhuj have been beautifully
carved.
• The majestic doors of traditional houses or havelis are artistic masterpieces with images of the
goddess Lakshmi or the elephant deity Ganesh carved in the central portion of the archway.
• The wood-carvers in Gujarat make extensive use of the parrot motif to highlight architectural features and ornament lid handles,
door brackets, edges and corners of chests.
• Large-sized chests called pataras, from Bhavnagar in Saurashtra, is a part of the bridal trousseau, fashioned to hold bed rolls,
jewellery, documents, oil and grain.
• Soothing colours and designs in the tin foil style are used in making furniture in Sankheda which is noted for its low seats, tables,
stools and swings.
• The wood-carver community of Gujarat, known as the mewara mistris, work in rural and urban areas.
• Wood inlay work of Surat is also famous and involves placing of pieces of ivory, plastic, horn, bone, metal, and fine wires into
carved surfaces.
• The wood on which inlay work is done include teak rose wood, or sandalwood.

3. Building
Utility
Ornamentation

4. Wood as a Building Material

5. HAVELIS IN GUJARAT
• Havelis belongs to more of domestic realms, unlike palaces, & forts that enjoy the
monumental status.
• The ground floor of the Haveli is completely a private area, whereas the first floor
has different entrance and luxurious interiors, & was meant for doing business &
entertaining guest.
• WOOD is used in abundance. The use of wood in architecture was a matter of prestige but the scale and extent of carving
within the given home were ultimately dependent on affordability.
• The excessive use of wood in columns, brackets, frontage and courtyards.
• The woodwork in the Havelis of the Gujarat is coated with black preservative oil that gives it a dark appearance.
• Tambekar Wada in Vadodara, Bohra Haveli in Siddhpur, Darbar Gopaldas Haveli in Kheda district and
Swaminarayan Haveli Temple in Ahmedabad are an absolute treat for eyes.

6. TAMBEKAR WADA IN VADODARA
Wada was designed to suit the Indian weather as well as the
joint family set-up which was part of the Indian tradition.
Wada was designed and made using locally sourced
materials and with a heavy influence of the local
architecture.
The interior of the Wada is nothing but a
riot of colours. Paintings, frescos & murals
decorate the walls, doors, & ceiling. Each
inch in the Wada is painted depicting
characters and stories from Indian
mythology – Mahabharata, discussions with
the Britishers, festivals, culture, war scenes,
fight sequence.
Handmade wooden jaali
wooden window

7. BOHRA HAVELI IN SIDHPUR
wooden balconies
The Dawoodi Bohras are a Shia Muslim trading
community from Gujarat with a very distinct history
and identity.
Since the community tended to stay together, entire
neighbourhoods came to be called Vohrawads or
Bohrawads, housing Bohra families. Built in a
distinctive architectural style, the Vohrawads are
rows of narrow, deep houses, about three to four
storeys high, and either along the main street or in a
grid like formation.
The houses in Sidhpur have a strong European character
with gabled roofs, ornate balconies, pilasters, columns
and decorated doors and windows.
The bohrawads/row houses of Siddhpur and Kapadvanj
are chief examples of the traditional craftsmanship of
Gujarat.
The facades and the brackets are the most magnificent
elements of these houses. The most traditional wooden
balconies are decorated with exotic overhanging
window seats called jharukho.
The brackets in the temples are beautifully carved.
interiors

8. GOPALDAS HAVELI, VASO
This village is known as Darbar Gopaldas and Mahendrishibhai’s Haveli.
This mansion is 250 years old. The artwork made from wood is in every
corner of the haveli. The ceiling of each room of the mansion is also
of seam wood. The haveli is spread in one and a half bighas. Although
wooden peeler and carving have been more than two centuries. Fesko
painting made using some years of natural colors used to be highly
ceiling
SWAMINARAYAN HAVELI TEMPLE IN
AHMEDABAD
Haveli architecture represents a unique vernacular form of design
dating back to the 1600s and earlier, but found to have flourished
in the late 18th to early 19th centuries in Gujarat and Rajasthan,
western India.
Originally crafted by a sub-group of Sompuras (highly skilled
stone-carving artisans), these edifices are renowned for the
intricacy and ingenuity of their wooden carvings.

9. Balcony (Jharukho)
The set of four columns along with cusped
arches would be originally a pert of balcony
supporting the roof or a above floor balcony.
Arch (Toran)
The arch is composed within a
wooden panelled frame carved with
geometric and floral pattern.
Arch (Toran)
The triple arch opening would be a part of an
inner courtyard of a traditional wooden house. The
three arches are similar in their form & style of
carving except the dimensions; the inner being
more elongated.
Window (Baharni Bari
Balcony-windows are part of the front façade of traditional
wooden houses of northern or central part of Gujarat.
Inspired from jharokha. The projection & low parapet
allowed residents of the house to sit outside & interact
with people in the street.
Column (Stambh)
Wooden columns are in three parts –
Capital, shaft and the base. The capital &
shaft are made of wood while the base is of
stone.
Wooden Architectural Elements

10. Window with metal grill (Bari)
This window is usually found on the ground floor of a
traditional wooden house. The metal bars provide security
and allow the ventilation within the house. The window is
ornamented carved with high and low relief carving on the
frame and panels as well as displays sculpturesque carving
column on the frame.
Ceiling
Carved as well as painted ceilings are not a regular
feature of traditional wooden houses of Gujarat. This
wooden ceiling is exquisite in terms of its ornamentation
style and method. It is not only carved but also painted
with multiple motifs and patterns in various colours. The
main ceiling beams are not carved for structural reasons.
Bracket (Madal)
These wooden brackets are part of a façade column
system to support the upper floor or upper balcony.
The bracket is prodigiously carved in sculpturesque &
relief technique. Brackets are adorned with
innumerable motifs, patterns & finite designs
superimposed upon each other.
Façade (Ravesh)
The façade of a typical wooden house shows windows
with wooden panels, entablature with curved baluster
panels on the beam supported
Wooden Architectural Elements

11. Wood craft - furniture

12. SANKHEDA COLOURFUL WOODEN FURNITURE & LACQUERWARE
• Lacquered turned wood furniture with hand painted motifs and
traditional method of ornamentation, popularly known as Sankheda
furniture, is thought to have been produced here from about 1855.
• Sankheda in Vadodara district is well-known for its colourful wooden
furniture.
• It is an excellent example of woodworking, woodturning, lacquerware
and hand-painting on wood.
• An artisan community called Kharadi Suthars make this furniture.
• They use hand-held tools, lathes, & simple machinery to do so.
• The tradition of making hand-painted furniture in Sankheda dates
to the mid-1800s.
• These are made from Teak wood.

13. • Sankheda furniture is a very colourful variety of furniture treated with Lacquer and
painted in traditional bright shades of maroon and gold. In recent years, colour
innovations have been adopted with black, blue, green, ivory, copper, silver and
burgundy shades.
• Apart from the age-old traditional furniture in a wide range like three piece
settees, headboards, beds, garden swings, dressing tables, rocking chairs, tables,
screens, divan, etc., other modern innovations introduced these days in Sankheda -
craft are wall-hangings, pedestal-lamps, flower-vases, pen-stands, toys, kitchen-
ware, and support for hammocks.
• Lacquered furniture was used previously as –
Toys
Top
Dandia
Swings
Stools

14. PROCESS –
• To begin with, the Suthars turn blocks of wood on lathes.
• Then they shave and smooth it to achieve the characteristic rounded shapes.
• Next, each piece is painted by hand in colours like maroon, vermilion, green and brown, often picked out with gold or silver,
and floral patterns, peacock motifs and abstract drawings to delicate lacelike forms.
• A brush made from very fine squirrel’s hair is typically used for painting. After painting, the pieces are coated with lacquer.
• Finally, the pieces are drilled to create space for tongue and groove or other forms of joinery required to fit and turn them
pieces of furniture.
• While Sankheda is largely known for its furniture and low stools called bajoths, the Suthars also produce smaller items like
dandiya sticks, candle stands, powder boxes, toys, utensils, rolling pins, and lacquered wooden temples.

15. PROCESS
Teak wood
Paint layer of N.C. Putty
I.C.I company oil base paint
Powder coated high gloss
finish with bright colour
Heating under sun
for releasing
moisture
Molding as per the
required shape
Heating for 12 hours
Heating for 12 hours

16. FINISHES
• They are mostly bright and shiny colors for outer
finishes.
• This is the most tough and skillful part in all furniture
piece.
• Ordinary people can’t make this colour as they made.
• A very skillful craftsmanship need to make this shiny
colour.
• They use ….
POWDER COLOR + HIGH GLOSS LIQUID + MELAMINE
+ THINNER
After that
They make glossy lamination coat for long lasting shiny
finish
JOINERY
• They use simple tongue and groove joinery for
joining parts with each other.
• They nail it from opposite side of the groove.
• This joinery is called saaling in their local language.
• They use this kind of joinery so that it can be joint or
detached easily.

17. Wood craft - carving

18. There are six types of carving techniques employed by the Indian woodcarver, when
dealing with ornamentation on wooden architecture.
1. Chip carving - The most simple and basic, it is the oldest technique where the form
form of carving is merely achieved by chisel and mallet.
2. Relief carving technique – With the use of basic tools, the unwanted portion of
design is chiselled out. This type of an expression is one of the most prominent
features of the facades of the wooden houses of Gujarat.
3. Undercutting carving technique - produced much bolder forms by cutting away
the wood that lies under the surface to a greater or lesser extent within the limits of
design. As a result, shadows are formed, making that surface (ground) dark and more
distinct, highlighting the design. Application of this technique can be observed mainly
on the brackets, column capitals, beam ends, and many of the furniture pieces.
Wood Carving

19. 4. Incised carving - carving a design without any ground work by using ‘v’ parting tool. The
technique here is used for making veins in the leaves or outlining the design work by
grooving. This technique is much prevalent in the interior elements and furniture.
5. Sculpturesque carving technique - is applied to the carving of a three dimensional
element, free from the ground. The interior-architecture elements like brackets, struts,
interior elements and furniture pieces are carved in round with numerous projections like
concave and convex surfaces to achieve any desirable form.
6. Pierced carving technique - has been known for centuries as the most effective form of
ornamentation. Wood was sawed and chiselled out between the designs and then filed.
This technique is used for making pierced jalis(trellis), interior doors, fixed facade
and partition screens.

20. ARCHITECTURAL WOOD CARVING IN SAURASHTRA, GUJARAT
• Architecture elements, furniture, blocks for textile printing have been the
most common use of woodcraft in Gujarat.
• Most traditional brackets called jharukhos, have intricate work of wood
carving.
• Both floral and geometrical motifs are used on various elements of the
wooden pillars, ceilings, etc.
ARCHITECTURAL WOOD CARVING IN KUTCH, GUJARAT
• Kutch is famous for its wood carving skills across India.
• Backrests and frames of charpoys & chairs are combined with colourful lathe
turned legs.
• Shallow relief carved patterns are often floral and geometric such a the
quarter foil and six petalled flowers.
• Tools such as chisels, hammers, saws and hand turned lathes etc. are used
for crafting process.
• Products such as cots, cupboards, hand fans, wooden columns, pillars,
brackets etc. are created.

21. LODIYA VILLAGE

22. LODIYA VILLAGE

23. LODIYA VILLAGE

24. Wood craft - others

25. SADELI
• Sadeli is said to have come to Gujarat through the Parsis from Iran.
• The heart of Sadeli crafts lies in Surat.
• Sadeli is a form of marquetry that showcases the art of decorating the surface
wooden articles with delicate pieces of wood and other materials in precisely cut
geometrical shapes.
• Sadeli is a highly skilled technique where the craftsmen, fabricate intricate
geometric or floral patterns on teak or other locally available wood.
• The elaborate designs add a charming aesthetic to doors, windows, cupboards,
and bedposts.
• The famous Bombay Box--a tourist favourite--is actually a Sadeli handicraft from
from Gujarat.
• The craft of Sadeli is used to make sofa sets, book racks and lamp holders.

26. JASDAN
Embellished Wooden Chests & Boxes
• Jasdan is an important centre for the production of brass-ribbed chests
called pataras or pataris & boxes embellished with metalwork.
• A patara is typically made of teak wood & contains eight or more drawers.
• Traditionally covered with brass and copper, now white metal is being increasingly used in their making.
• The box is strengthened with thick black metal pieces and decorated with thin pieces of white metal, embossed on the
wood.
• The chests are lined with brass strips and brass stoppers are fixed.
MEENAKARI STYLE PAINTED FURNITURE
• Rajkot district is well-known for its gold jewellery and silverware, including
jewellery, boxes, furniture, and utensils made from silver.
• Traditionally handcrafted, now mechanisation has been introduced.
• Rajkot’s wood artisans produce meenakari style painted furniture.

27. KUTCH LACQUER CRAFT WOODEN SPOONS & LADLES
• A truly unique and beautiful set that is extremely durable and hardy.
• This beautiful craft form is unique and distinctive with its characteristic kaleidoscopic, zig
patterns that emerge as coloured lacquer is applied to wood with heat.
• The craft is practiced using simple tools like a self made lathe, a string attached to a bow,
and sticks of coloured lac.
• The process begins with crafting the raw wood into the desired product after which,
apply lac on the wood while it is being turned on the lathe.
• The heat generated makes the lacquer melt due to the constant friction and allows it to
to the surface of the wood.
• Finally the piece is given a glossy polish with oil.
• Wood used is Babul wood.
• Traditionally, the lacquer was coloured with vegetable dyes. Now artisans use brightly
coloured chemical dyes.

28. KUTCH LACQUER CRAFT WOODEN SPOONS & LADLES

29. Woodcraft is a traditional art that exhibits the unique art of beautiful wooden
handicrafts. These woodcrafts serve the purpose for utilitarian and also for
architectural purpose.

30. • Ornamentation observed on these houses belongs to natural, figural and geometric type.
• The facade of the Hindu houses of Gujarat show a very high end style of figural motifs, where subjects like peacock,
parrot, elephants and religious figures are much popular. The narrative figures depicting the stories of gods and
was largerly observed in the haveli mandir and the temples of Gujarat.
• The muslim dwellings mainly represented the floral and geometric types of motifs and pattern.
• One of the interesting subject of carving observed in all these regions is the mythical creature.