Shola Pith Topor - Kolkata
The Topar is a headgear made of shola wood, used exclusively in Bengali weddings. The following steps are involved in the making of a Topar. Firstly, the artisan draws a cone shape using a template over a cardboard sheet. Then with the help of a scissor, the layout is cut appropriately. This shape is rolled into a cone, and its ends are pasted using an adhesive. Now it is ready to bear decorations of shola wood over them. But before that, the raw shola wood is perfected by shaving away its dark outer skin, thus exposing white-colored shola wood inside. This portion is then used to decorate the Topar with different kinds of designs.
Generally, the traditional designs incorporated into a Topar are circular or semi-circular in shape taking into consideration the pliability of the natural raw materials used. The craft is completely hand-carved as the soft nature of the wood prevents it from being attached to any holding devices. The small carvings here are cut in half and turned into thin slices for easy gluing to the cardboard cone. The circular shola wood is also shaped into rectangular blocks, and the edges turned to a jagged form. These thin shavings are then applied with a thin layer of glue and pasted on the cone's outer portion. The strips then bear a layer of shola wood motifs at their circumference placed equidistantly. Once the shapes are rightly stuck, decorative glasses, stones, lurex yarns are fixed to embellish the piece further. And the gaps between the strips are filled with semi-circular carvings. Towards the finishing stage, various types of motifs attached to the Topar are decorated with glitter beads to add extra beauty to the craft. Thus completed Topar is then left to dry for some minutes and packed in a plastic cover for storage and supply.
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