1st day of the workshop
We will be working within in 3 different craft disciplines:
Blacksmithing,
stone
and metal beating.
Today we were taken to the Old Town to meet the different craftsmen in their workshops.
Blacksmiths (gadia lohar)
LOHARSIndia1.pdf
The Lohar were originally travelling blacksmithing families. The ones we met in Jaipur though had settled by the roadside in the busy and chaotic city. They work as family units with up to 3 generations living and working together. The young son will turn the bellows to heat the small fire pit as the wife and husband work together heating, beating the metal into shape.
When we visited them they were working on an order of industrial building hooks as well as selling small trinkets they have made to passing tourists.
Stone
We were shown around a large marble workshop where the craftsmen were doing handcarving. Then we saw their showroom - everthing was white! then we enjoyed some chai!
Metal Workers (Thathera)
The Thathera live and work in the same building - working the metal from flat sheets into mainly rounded vessals using copper and brass.
