Soap Carving - Shilpakala
Soaps generally are used for cleansing and are produced by treating the vegetable oil, fats or animal oil with a strongly alkaline solution. It is generally the key component for lubricating greases that are usually the emulsions or mineral oils. It is said, the Babylonians were the first people to invent the art of creating soap by boiling fats with ashes. Majorly used them for the cleaning of the cotton and the wool in the textile manufacturing units. Each type of people developed with different technique of making and obtaining the soap. It is said it is more used for cleaning the cooking utensils or goods and also for medicinal purposes.
Carving is generally the act of shaping something from the materials by scraping some portions with the help of the available tools. It is said that people in the olden days didn’t speak a lot but with the help of stones they used to carve on the rocks and hills to tell out what they wanted to tell others. They used to draw on the walls to communicate the things in their surroundings.
With the Interview with Smt. Gayathri shilpi the daughter of A.C.H.Aarcharya and Smt. Saroj Devi describes though she has learnt the art of making sculptures on the stone from her father. She has chosen to make the sculptures on the soap the easily available and it is easier to carve this material. She has also taken the part of training the sculptors in teaching them the carving on soap before the stone carving for the thorough understanding of the parts as which has to protrude and the parts that have to be done with intricate carvings.
