Lippan Kaam (Mud work )

One of the best feelings is retracing the path to your origin, feeling close to your ancestors, your culture and art. Art defines a lot about what we were back then, how far we have progressed and how much we have deviated from our heritage. Being born in a Kutchi family I was introduced to the art of mud painting, also known as lippan kaam or chitter kaam.

Mud painting is supposed to be one of the traditional forms of art in which an artist conveys his ideas through vivid shapes and designs which he creates by using mud or clay. Originality of lippan kaam lies in adding colourless or white and small round-shaped, triangle-shaped or diamond-shaped mirror pieces being added to the work.

Lippan work can be found on walls of bhungas ( mud houses ), which can normally be seen in Kutch.

I started by taking MDF board and my aim for the day was to try making shapes from clay and water. The clay was smelly and after gaining further knowledge about it I came to know that it is made up of two main ingredients  - camel poop and mud. The smell was so awful that I had to wash my hands a lot of times after finishing the day's task.

The next day I started searching for designs to draw on the MDF board, here I learnt that traditional mud work has symmetrical designs. Using a scale, pencil and rounder I drew some random designs on 1/4th of the MDF and then I erased the part which I didn't like and started drawing random design again until I concluded. Afterwards again I took some clay but instead of water I used it with fevicol this time and started tracing my drawings with it giving it a 3d outlook. Again I had to wash my hands a lot, but I was happy because I won't be needing to work with clay again tomorrow.

The final day - the painting day. Firstly I painted the whole board in white colour and let it dry. After it was dried I painted it again with different colours. As a lover of pink colour, I couldn't resist not painting pink, resulting in the addition of the more bright colours. Last adding few small mirrors of several shapes and completed the painting.  

I am proud to say that the terrible smell couldn't stop me from completing the painting and I am happy with the outcome.