Islamic ornamentation: From uninitiated to masters of intricate patterns in eight days

45 participants attended the workshop by Abdul Razzaq Razi.

ISLAMABAD:

At the end of an extensive workshop on Islamic ornamentation, many girls were proud of what they had managed to learn in a little over a week.

The 45 participants seemed extremely satisfied with the outcome of their work, which featured some creative use of bright, bold colours in some pieces, while others stayed conventional. The eight-day workshop was organised at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA).

Their mentor and teacher was well-known artist Abdul Razaq Razi, who travelled daily from Haripur. Most of the students had never worked on such intricate patterns with fine brush work and detailing before, but by the end of the workshop they managed to create perfect geometrical and vegetal patterns.

“This art is not normally accessible in art schools. Most students have no idea about this, it is alien to them,” said Nadya Rahat, an art student and participant in the workshop.

In eight days, the participants learnt a step-by-step process involving papermaking or paper polishing, followed by brush making (a very fine brush is used to create these ornamentation designs, a squirrels hair is usually used for making these brushes). Then comes the most difficult part: making the ornaments.

“We tried mainly to create patterns from our own imaginations but since this was the first time for the students, we took some ideas from here and there,” said Razi, as he pointed out that creating thin outlines and neat patterns is probably the hardest part for any beginner.

Once the patterns and designs are created, they are transferred onto the main paper and the gilding process begins. The gilding process uses a gold leaf paper or gold dust in the patterns. Razi said, “22 carat leaves are used for pasting, however 24 carat is used to create gold dust. If the pasting method is used then we use a special gum to stick the gold leaves onto the paper.”

On the final day, female students, mostly from Comsats Institute of Information Technology, National College of Arts Rawalpindi and Fatima Jinnah Women University displayed their work and were awarded certificates.

Sidra, a participant, pointed to everyone and exclaimed, “We’ve done a pretty good job in only eight days!”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2012.