Everyone dreams of building their own home right? Mine ranges in style from mud brick to straw bale with an adobe state of mind and dozens of decorative elements. Please note there will be lots of curves and no angles or built-ins to best nurture the plenty humans and animals within. Think Georgia O’Keefe’s cob house in New Mexico but on acid and you just about have it. The Bunga huts in Kutch, Gujarat are just how I like it in fact.
These magical mud and mirror-work homes or Bunga huts as they are better known locally are decorated with lippan kam – a decorative art created by the Harijan and Rabari women of the area. Created with mud, camel dung and a selection of mirror pieces, the very same mirrors the women sew onto their clothes also, and a simple technique for an elaborate and magical effect. Elaborate and magical is India in two words actually.
Food storage, full walls and shelf work are the norm for Bunga huts but the salon hang mixed with lippan kam is definitely next level! This is why I love this rather remote area of Rajasthan so much.. the more remote you go the more decorative and colourful the people and their homes become. “Full power!”
Images of all sizes from Pinterest. Good enough reason to go and take my own.
APPETITE FOR DECORATION 