Krishna Lippan Wall Art Medallions - 4 Mud & Mirror Designs

Four round Lippan medallions, each taking one image out of the Krishna story and giving it a disc of its own: the cow, the flute, the dancing feet, and the pot of butter. Sold one at a time in three sizes, so you can buy the single one that fits a gap or build the group the photographs show.

What Lippan art is

Lippan kaam is the mud-and-mirror relief work of Kutch in Gujarat, made for centuries by Rabari women on the inside walls of their homes: clay worked into raised patterns with the fingers, then set with abhla - small mirrors - so a single oil lamp lights the whole room. What you are buying is that technique on a board, hand-worked in India.

The four designs

• PichwaiCow - 12 inches, 570 g (approx. 1.3 lb). The cow of the Nathdwara Pichwai tradition, mirror mosaic border. The smallest and least expensive of the four
• KrishnaFlute - 14 inches, 840 g (approx. 1.9 lb). Two hands on the bansuri, the shorthand for Krishna without a portrait
• DancingFeet - 14 inches, 840 g (approx. 1.9 lb). Krishna's feet and the drape of his dhoti, anklets included
• Dahihandi - 18 inches, 1,740 g (approx. 3.8 lb). The clay pot of butter on a lotus base, the largest and heaviest of the four

The price is per medallion. Each is a separate piece with its own hook, and the price shown changes with the design you select. Add several to the cart if you want the group.

Which to buy

Buying one: the Dahihandi at 18 inches is the only one big enough to hold a wall alone. Buying two: the flute and the dancing feet are the same 14-inch size and read as a natural pair. Buying three or four: put the Dahihandi at the centre or the top, since it is four inches larger than the others, and cluster the rest around it.

What the four designs mean

• Dahihandi - the pot of curd and butter hung high, which Krishna and the gopas formed a human pyramid to reach. Re-enacted every Janmashtami
• Krishna's flute - the bansuri identifies Krishna the way no portrait needs to
• Dancing feet - the raas, Krishna's dance with the gopis of Vrindavan
• Pichwai cow - the herd Krishna kept, and the recurring subject of the Nathdwara cloth paintings

Details

• Round medallions in three sizes: 12 inch, 14 inch, 18 inch
• Weights from 570 g to 1,740 g depending on the design
• MDF board with hand-worked clay relief and glass mirror inlay
• Hand-made in India
• Back hook fitted - the 12 and 14 inch pieces are light enough for a pushpin
• Price is per medallion - choose one design above