Rogan portray: Holding a dying artwork type alive

Abdul Gafur Khatri, a Padma Shri Awardee, portray Rogan artwork on a cloth (Picture: Jabbar Arab Khatri)

Rogan artwork is a technique of textile work, impressed by a Persian artwork type that got here to Kutch district of Gujarat round four-centuries in the past.

Rogan art work is historically designed on bridal put on and wedding ceremony materials utilizing wealthy brilliant pure colors with out utilizing any drawing brush.

The Rogan cloth work are produced by an arduous course of. The time period Rogan means “oil-based” in Persian. First, castor oil is extracted from castor seeds, castor crops are generally grown within the Kutch district. The oil is boiled for greater than 12 hours periodically. The entire course of takes round two days, then heated castor oil is then combined with chilly water till it thickens right into a sticky golden-brown substance referred to as Rogan.

Rogan paste is fastidiously twisted on the tip of the rod to create varied designs and patterns on the material (Picture: Jabbar Arab Khatri)

Then the subsequent step is including colors. The colors utilized in Rogan work are pure mineral pigments that are floor with stone after which combined with somewhat quantity of water, including Rogan in it utilizing a stone pestle in order that it’s combined with the colors correctly.

“We use pure pigments to make the bottom robust, chemical colors fade away rapidly whereas pure colors will keep endlessly and there will likely be no unwanted side effects both,” Muhammad Jabbar Arab Khatri who has been training Rogan artwork for nearly 14 years in Nirona village of Kutch tells Media India Group.

The ready Rogan is then immersed in water and saved in containers to forestall it from drying and hardening.

“The entire means of changing castor oil to Rogan paste is often completed in a forest or remoted place as it’s a harmful course of and generally it does catch hearth. We take all of the precautions earlier than doing this course of, but not everybody can do that safely,” provides Jabbar.

Up to now, many households in Kutch district practiced Rogan artwork, however now Khatri is the one household preserving the artwork from the sting of extinction and making an attempt to revive the artwork by portray ceremonial garments, by internet hosting workshops and spreading consciousness in regards to the artwork type. The complete clan has been engaged in Rogan work for eight generations and it has gained a number of awards like Padma Shri, 4 Nationwide Awards, three Nationwide Advantage Certificates and 7 state awards altogether, apart from quite a few worldwide awards.

Portray on garments

If making the Rogan itself is a sophisticated course of, portray of garments isn’t a straightforward process both. For this, the instruments employed by the artisans are a rod and the palm of the hand. Earlier than the Rogan is utilized to the material, the paint is twisted right into a effective thread and the artist locations somewhat portion of thick paint onto the palm and mixes it vigorously with a steel or a rod referred to as “Kalam” (or pen) that’s held within the different hand. That is combined till the Rogan paste stretches and twists right into a effective thread-like substance.

Now the thick consistency of Rogan paste is fastidiously twisted on the tip of the rod to create varied designs and patterns on the material. The designs are painted freehand and finish outcomes resemble embroidery. To make a single cloth it might take days, weeks, or months relying on the designs. Shiny colors are used to make their depth stand out.

“Rogan work are painstakingly painted on materials and the steel by no means touches the material. Our personal imaginations play a serious function in designing and an enormous quantity of persistence goes into making a single design cloth,” says Jabbar.

An enormous a part of this craft relies on two elements,  temperature and climate and likewise the consistency of the Rogan paste which performs a serious function in designing too.

Reviving artwork by artist efforts

Earlier, Rogan work have been the only supply of livelihood for the tribal residents of Kutch and so they had massive orders on particular events like festivals or weddings.

However over time, with huge availability of machine-made industrial textiles, the gross sales of Rogan artwork started to undergo and the artisans struggled to eke out a dwelling. This pressured a lot of them to desert their ancestral professions and search for different jobs.

Nonetheless, the dying artwork type acquired an important enhance and a push in direction of revival when in 2014, Prime Minister Modi gifted to US President Barack Obama a Rogan artwork piece made by Abdul Gafur Khatri, depicting the tree of life. After that the Khatris say they’ve acquired many orders from consumers abroad in addition to in India.

Artist Abdul Gafur Khatri and Jabbar Arab Khatri educating college students throughout a workshop (Picture: Jabbar Arab Khatri)

They are saying that the federal government additionally helped them to promote their work in some ways. “In the course of the Covid-19 peak, the federal government helped us by putting a number of orders and helped us promote our merchandise in exhibitions. On this means, they helped us make higher identified within the area and it additionally allowed us to get a greater worth for our artwork,” says Jabbar.

The Khatris have additionally begun promoting their materials by social media, and to protect the artwork type, they’ve begun enrolling youthful artists to make sure that the artwork thrives. They are saying they’ve begun coaching ladies and kids not solely from Kutch, however throughout India, in Rogan artwork.

“I’ve participated in lots of workshops and taught this artwork in schools,  primarily the Nationwide Institute of Vogue Expertise (NIFT) college students come to us to study this artwork. We train them to color on completely different type of materials like pillow cowl, de
sk cloths, wall hangings, sarees, costume supplies and a whole lot of ornamental items,” explains Jabbar.