Dokra Craft - What is the Process in Which Dhokra Art Receives Its Shape?

The brassware images and hollow brass objects are cast using the process of lost wax or cire perdue. First the Dokra artist has to envisage the image he wants to create in his mind. For that he has to meditate hard. Once he is sure and confident that he has the full image in his mind, he will try to give concrete shape to the image he has in his mind in wax.

That is why it is said that the essence of Dokra craft is to first give shape to the desired model or object in a soft bed of bees wax individually.

This wax figure is encased within a hardened core of clay that is pretty close to the replica of the object that is about to be cast. Usually sufficient quantity of molten material or molten metal is poured into the clay encasing through a hole at the top.

These layers of refractory soft material will be poured all over the model in wax and then the whole thing will be left to dry. Either the mold will be heated and dried in the furnace or it will be left in the sun to dry. Either ways, the mold will get hardened as it dries up.

When the mold is being heated the wax in the wax model is lost or it vaporizes and melts in heat. That is why it is called the lost wax technique. During the process of heating up, the wax that gets burnt out or lost was placed between the mold and the core.

When the wax vanishes, the molten metal flows down the wax channels and takes the place of the lost wax. This molten metal will get hardened while staying between the mold's inner surface and the core.

The wax model's negative impression is captured in all its details in the mold's inner surface. The hollow interior of the figurine is produced by the hollow core. When the whole thing is fired, the mold and the hard core turn soft and spongy and the Dokra artist can then easily remove them.

The finished Dokra/Dhokra product is given a final round of good polishing, expressive features are added and it's smoothed down to increase the beauty and luster.