Saturday, February 18, 2017

Sea Shell craft of Mahabalipuram

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Mahabalipuram is a town situated in the Kanchipuram district of Tamil Nadu, about 60kms from the city of Chennai. The place is infamous for it’s Shore temple and is a major tourist attraction. The town also houses a huge number of Seashells crafts and Rock sculpting shops. A peek into these Seashell craft shops and you will notice that the products mostly comprise of contemporary items such as mirrors adorned with conch shells, seashell curtains, key chains and such. This might give an impression to a common onlooker that the craft is a contemporary one. But the truth is the polar opposite of it.

India is a land of rich religious and cultural values. Starting from the birth of a child to the final rites of a family member, the Conch has deep seated roots in the lives of the Indian people. The history of the land is too deep and when the conch got integrated into its culture is unknown. But one can see numerous occurrences of conches in epics and folklores. They have been used by people for ages as ornaments, Religious ceremonies, brandings, tattoos, proverbs, at homes, as feeding pouts, totems, currencies, as horns in the times of war, marriages, incense sticks etc. At present the availability of better adhesives and bleaching agents have enabled the craftsmen to bring innovation to their craft.

Mr.P.Babu is one such craftsman who owns a shop near the shore temple. Like every other seashell craftsmen in Mahabalipuram, he too sources most of his shells from wholesalers in Chennai. Most of the sea shells used are fished out from the coastal fisheries of Rameshwaram, Kanyakumari and Cuddalore. They are cleaned and processed here before being sent out to major hubs like Chennai. The Shells are washed and cleaned to remove all the moss and dirt that are stuck to their exterior. This is done in such a way that the shell doesn’t get damaged in the process. After that they are dried in direct sunlight. This helps in getting rid of the soft tissues inside. As the shell is taken from the sea and had been exposed to moss and dirt for a very long time they carry a foul smell. Inorder to get rid of the smell they are soaked in Caustic soda for about thirty minutes. To add shine to the shells they soaked in hot water sprinkled with hydrochloric acid. Finally an emery brush is used to remove some of the irremovable particles.

The local Craftsmen buy their shells from the wholesalers. The small shells are bought in bulk quantities while the bigger and rarer shells are bought on a cost per piece basis. Dyed shells are also available. The smaller shells and cheaper bigger ones are used in making products like wall hangings ,mirror frames, pen stands and other small hand crafted products. The bigger shells are either sold solo or are crafted into much costlier materials like light lamps and such. Mr.Babu assembles wall hangings, mirror frames and other show pieces him selves. He generally uses Fevicol (Adhesive), Glue gun, strings and paints for making his product.Any additional materials depend upon his designs and his designs are limited to his own imagination. He also makes personalised souvenirs by etching names on the shells. He does this by first writing the name on to the shell using a whitener and then mild exposing the entire surface to a very dilute hydrochloric acid. He then finishes by washing it with warm water. He makes all his products in his shop and sells them to the tourists who visit the shore temple. 

 The sea shells have been in demand for a very long and the craft industry has also existed as long. After Independence because of the advent of science and technology, new chemical compounds have given craftsmen better adhesives and bleaching agents enabling them to come up with new innovations in their crafts. But at the same time shells which that have been used as an ingredient in the making of many materials have been replaced by better alternatives and thus dropped in demand. As the time passed the craftsmen in order to try and impress tourists who are their major customers, started coming with further innovative products but in the process, they have lost their traditional designs. After some time even their designs have become repetitive and stagnant. These craftsmen desperately need help to package, advertise and market their craft to make them unique and noticeable to the foreign market.

Contact details:
Name:    P.Babu
Address: Babu Sea Shell Mart
                No.55, Beach Road, Mahabalipuram-603104
Mobile no - 9444608144,  9840362097
Working Hours - 10am to 7pm

 Documented by Raghavaraj S

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