Gandhinagar (Gujarat) [India], May 18 : Started as a hobby, a mother-son duo's passion for making hand-made dolls has reached the next level! Hailing from the capital of Gujarat, their version of Barbie dolls is now part of a promotion of Indian culture and cultural dressing.
The dolls are not just visually attractive but also very unique as these are made by a technique of cotton sculpture comprising cloth, cotton and clay.
Ranjan Bhatt, an eighty-year-old lady from Gandhinagar has been making these dolls for the past 60 years as a hobby. Her traditional dolls have reached more than 20 countries now.
Harin Bhatt, her son who is also a doll maker, told ANI, "There are total 25 different art forms that require making one doll and the time taken to make each doll is about 10-14 hours. We have made more than 1 lakh of dolls till now in different sizes starting from 6 inches to life-size dolls."
"These are not just normal dolls, but these are traditional dolls representing Indian cultural attire of different states and tribes. Not only this, but we also make idols of Gods and Goddesses and also depict ancient stories around them, like that of Raas-Leela and various others," stated Harin.
He further said, "Our foundation Kalashree is working with an objective to put the Indian cultural dressings before the World and hence we make the idols and dress them in traditional outfits which are all region specific. We also have dolls that are dressed in proper traditional dance attires like that of Kathakali, Garba, Lavani and many others."
Special care was taken for the fabrics used along with the prints as well as the work on them.
Ranjanben Bhatt is training the next generation of women in doll-making art, in an attempt to keep this art alive. She has also trained more than 8000 women for tailoring and cutting of women's and children's garments as well as machine and hand embroidery.
The mother-son duo also have 3 International records in their name for doll making which are registered in the World's prestigious books of records such as the Guinness Book of World Records, the World Book of record as well as the UNESCO Cultural Award.
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