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Furniture and wood carving
Rajasthan
excels in the art of making `old furniture`. Doors and windows,
wooden jharokhas, tables with cast iron jaalis, side-boards, chairs,
benches, jhoolas or swings, and dressers are made to resemble the
furniture that was in vogue in havelis a hundred years ago. While
Jaipur is a popular centre, Jodhpur, in particular, is well known
for its `old` furniture, and Ramgarh, in Shekhawati, has become a
major centre for its manufacture. Shekhawati and Bikaner have been
the traditional centres for woodwork. Jodhpur and Kishangarh are
especially popular for painted wooden furniture. Shekhawati, Bikaner
and Ramgarh specialise in making delicately carved wooden doors.
Barmer craftsmen specialise in woodcarvings. Other pieces of
furniture include the leather-embroidered chairs of Tilonia, and the
carved-back, string-bottom chairs of Shekhawati. Marble tops for
tables are also popular, and screens are available with both painted
panels and brass embellishments. Carving: On a more popular level,
visitors will find everything from camels and horses to elephants
and parrots that are carved and brightly painted.
Jewellery and Gemstones
Rajputs
prefer gold - even for their feet while chunky silver articles are
worn by the tribes and other castes. Besides the handmade silver
jewelry, exquisite ornaments are made in Jaipur and Jodhpur using
emerald, diamond, pearl, garnet, agate and lapis lazuli. Colourfully
enamelled gold and silver jewellery is also very popular. Kundan,
(precious stone set in gold) jewelry is a specialty of Jaipur.
Rajasthan is one of the largest centres in the world for the
hand-cutting of gems. It is not unusual to find shops piled with
onyx, cat`s eye, lapiz lazuli, carnelian, garnets, amethysts and
topaz. Even precious stones like rubies, emeralds and diamonds are
easily available. Semi-precious and precious stones at Jaipur are
also carved into figurines and statues.
Metal
crafts
In later
years the art of enamelling became merely decorative and, in
Rajasthan, has been used for everything from tabletops to wall
plates, flasks, and for crafting objets d`art. Brassware, enamelled,
engraved and filigree cut work on silver are available in Rajasthan.
Jaipur, Alwar and Jodhpur are prime centres for metalware.
Paintings
Miniature
paintings, portrait and courtly paintings, murals, cloth and
furniture painting, mehndi or henna, domestic painting and mandana
or the art of decorating houses are some of these. Jaipur, Jodhpur,
Nathdwara and Kishangarh are some of the centres still engaged in
this art form. Of course, there are other forms of painting
available too such as the phads or scrolls with their tales of
Pabuji, and the pichwais with their Krishna legends. The centre for
the best pichwais is Nathdwara, near Udaipur, where the paintings
are often decorated with precious stones.
Puppets
Inexpensive souvenirs, they recall more easily than most other
things memories of a visit to this state of chivalrous kings and
beautiful queens.
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