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Manfacturing Process of Assamese Traditional Jewellery
The Assamese Traditional Jewellery is typically handmade and the designs are mostly depict floral and faunal treasures of the region. The traditional designs are simple but decorated with vibrant red gem stone, ruby or mina. Black, Red and Green colours on Gold Jewelleries are most favourites among the buyers, these colours also dominate the traditional dresses of tribes and communities of the northeastern states. Some designs are directly derived from the elements of tribal culture and incorporated in these ornaments directly, and sometimes by blending. The Jangphai, Keru and Gamkharu were originally tribal ornaments. Lokaparo, which is an ornaments with two sets of twin pigeons placed back to back in gold, mina or ruby was originally worn by the high profile male dignitaries of the royal Ahom Dynasty. Gamkharu, a part of gold bangle, originally used by males only, have now become an essential part of the Bihu dance costume of girls.
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Assamese ornaments are hand-crafted by expert craftsmen. These prestigious traditional ornaments of Assamese people are mainly made by “Sonari” group of people of Assamese and Bengali community using both gold and silver metals. In case of gold, 99% pure gold (24 carats) is generally used. These ornaments are generally known as “Kacha Sonar Gohana” or “Pat Sonar Gohana”. But in Barpeta the traditional ornaments are made of silver with gold-plating. In this process, gold is passed through a machine to make very fine gold-leaves. These delicate gold leaves are used to cover the silver frames of the ornaments. In case of silver metal, different type of items are mainly prepared by silver, such as “tar”, “vissile” and pat” which are the most important elements for manufacturing the ornaments. From these three elements of silver, two must be used in the making of ornaments in a particular design; ‘Pine’ is a strong quality of paste, is generally used is made by the mixture of silver, copper and bronze. To enhance the quality and beauty of these ornaments, special colours are used which is known as ‘Mina’. Besides these, some different types of colourful stones are also used here. After pasting the stones and ’mina’ through ‘nuoni’ and kanchani, the pure gold leaves are used. Some different types of colourful small size beads which are known as ‘moni’ are also used in the Assamese Traditional Jewellery items. According to size, colour and quality of the balls they are known as ‘bakharuamoni’, ‘balmoni’, ‘desimoni’ etc. Instruments used in the manufacturing process are haturi, bhati, niary, daish, Phali, karsani, kati, nuoni, lap, thina, bhakhor, lamp of candle, flame of fire etc.
