Subhasis Maity, freelance writer
India has always celebrated the joy of colours through several festivals by several means. The passion for colour is reflected everywhere in every sphere of life of this tropical country. From a hard-core utility item to a mere trifling thing the presence of colour is worth noticing. The glass bangles, adorable to Indian women are not also an exception to this colour fondness. They have successfully resisted the pressures of time and are thriving in new forms.
Glass bangles in India are much popular accessory among the women folks. Several coloured bangles wearing with a same colour attire is a traditional fashion for many women in India. But this piece of writing is going to be on another creative use of this ornament, which lies far away from its original functionality.
A very big fair, known as Dantan Grameen Mela, is organized at Dantan, a rural area on the border of West Bengal and Orissa. Apart from usual purpose of a fair, this has gathered larger socio-cultural purposes like arranging various cultural programmes of artists from various parts of India, arranging local cultural functions, promoting art and crafts, spearheading awareness camps etc.
The organizers put in a lot of efforts in creating a beautiful fair arena and the entrance gateway to the fair-ground bears a lofty conscious of the people. In January, 2011 they constructed the gateways and the stages with glass bangles as main decorating elements in a remarkable artistic way. The artists and craftsmen, entrusted with it, showed remarkable aesthetic sense and creative skills in decorating the gateways. At first they chose the base colour in pastel orange, a colour which creates a cool appearance and elicits a warm reception. Somewhere they added a trace of pure orange leaving it more vibrant. The vast and architecturally complex canvas encouraged them to play with darker colour glass bangles to decorate the portal.
The glass bangles played the key role in filling the canvas. Various motifs were created with bangles, cut or uncut. They created floral patterns, stylized rectangular designs, flower vase with leafy flowers, ethnic percussionists and many more eye-catching motifs.
Every minute detail of the figurines were taken care of, and it could be noticed in the drapes of the dhoti of the drummer, the curve of his chest, the partings of his turbans and moreover in the finishing perfection of the edges despite the bangle’s curved nature.
In most of the cases the artists chose the tassar fabric as base material to stick the craft on it. It complemented the base colour of the frame and also enhanced the beauty of the craft bringing it into more prominence.
Thus it was an exhibition of patience, a new idea, courage to work with something unusual that left the people gazing on the beautiful designs for about a month.
