‘Desi Barbies’ made of jute, bicycle wire steal show

KANPUR: A doll maker makes dolls of many shapes and sizes using jute, mud and bicycle wire. Replicas of Japanese dolls, Radha-Kishan and Bharat Mata have been attracting people visiting Brand Kanpur fair in Motijheel.
Doll maker from Rawatpur Krishna Gupta seemed to be happy and thankful to the administration for providing a platform to small businessman like him. He said that jute-made dolls are an art originally belonging to Kolkata.“I learnt making them 15 years back during my visit to Kolkata in 2000. Before starting the doll making business, I used to sell vegetables. There was not much income in that and the job was little boring. So, when I came back from Kolkata I experimented with making dolls and the results were convincing,” he said.
All the nine members of the Gupta family have become artisan now. “My five daughters, two sons, I and my wife work whole day to make dolls. I bring raw jute from the market, wash it with a chemical and then brush the fibre to make it soft and smooth. It takes almost half of the day doing this much. This is followed by colouring the jute. The structure of the doll is made with the help of bicycle wires. We buy wires from ‘kabadi’ market at the cost of iron,” he said.
The bicycle wires are straightened and cut into pieces. The face and hand of dolls are made of mud. The mud faces are baked in furnance for making them durable. Even the dresses and jewellery are hand-made. Five daughters of Gupta have divided the work and are master in their own field. “The dolls are handmade from head to toe. The structure and facial expression are our creativity and imagination,” Krishna’s daughter Kiran Gupta said.
The family takes their dolls in every ‘mela’ that is organised in the city. They make a temporary makeshift shop to display their product. The dolls range from Rs 80 to Rs 600, depending on the size and decoration. In the last three days, Guptas are having good business.