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Activities / Pattachitra / Pattachitra Mini Patta

Pattachitra Mini Patta

Mini Patta on Stiffened Cloth: Pattachitra's Cloth Scroll Method at Home

Level
Intermediate
Duration
3 - 4 hours (plus 1 day drying)
Budget
₹436 – ₹734
Age
12+
State
Odisha

Materials

  • White acrylic gesso (surface primer)
  • Acrylic paints: red, yellow, blue, green, black, white
  • Round brushes in sizes 0 and 2 (a set of 6 to 9 is fine)
  • Black waterproof fineliner, 0.5 mm
  • Bamboo skewer, 30 cm (12 in), for hanging
  • Old thin cotton cloth, 2 pieces of 20 x 20 cm
  • Wheat flour, water and a small pan (adult help for the stove)
  • White school glue, pencil, spoon, scissors
  • Plastic sheet, newspaper, jar of water, plate for mixing

Steps

  1. Gather your cloth, flour and tools and plan two days
    A patta is a cloth stiffened into a painting surface. This project takes two sessions: about 1 hour to make the patta, then 24 hours of drying, then 2 to 3 hours of painting and another day of drying. Wash and iron two pieces of old thin cotton, each 20 x 20 cm (8 x 8 in), such as an old kurta or bedsheet. Put newspaper on your table and set out the flour, a pan, a brush, glue and paints.
  2. Cook a smooth flour paste and let it cool
    Mix 2 tablespoons of wheat flour with 100 ml of water in a small pan, stirring out all lumps. Ask an adult to heat it on low flame for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring the whole time, until it thickens to a smooth paste like custard. Let it cool completely, about 15 minutes. Common mistake: using hot paste, which soaks through the cloth and sticks it to the table.
    Tip: If lumps remain, press the paste through a tea strainer before it cools.
  3. Glue the two cloths together with a thin coat of paste
    Lay one cloth flat on a plastic sheet. Spread a thin, even coat of paste over it with a brush or your fingers, right up to the edges. Lay the second cloth on top and press from the centre outwards with your palm to push out wrinkles and air. The two layers should feel like one thick fabric, with no lumps of paste showing.
  4. Dry the patta flat for 24 hours
    Leave the stuck cloth flat on the plastic sheet, in the shade and away from wind, for a full day. Do not hang it, because it will wrinkle. Peel it up gently after 24 hours. It should feel stiff, like thin card, and be completely dry all through. If it still feels cool or soft in the middle, give it a few more hours.
  5. Coat the patta with white gesso and smooth it
    Brush one thin coat of white gesso over the patta, in one direction, and let it dry for 30 minutes. Brush a second coat in the other direction and let it dry. Then rub the surface firmly with the back of a spoon in small circles until it feels smooth like paper. Traditional pattachitra uses chalk and glue for this layer, and gesso is the easy modern alternative.
    Tip: Thin coats dry faster and do not crack. Two thin coats are better than one thick coat.
  6. Pencil a border and a simple framed scene
    Draw a border 1.5 cm in from the edge all round, with a second line 5 mm inside it. Inside, draw one simple scene: a tree, a pair of fish or a lotus pond. Make shapes plump with clear outlines, and give figures big almond-shaped eyes. Pattachitra fills the space, so leave no big empty patches. Draw lightly so the lines can be painted over.
  7. Paint flat colours one at a time, drying each
    Start with the lightest colours. Paint the shapes in flat red, yellow ochre, white and green, with no shading, using the size 2 brush. Let each colour dry about 10 minutes before the next one. Then paint the border and the dark background in deep indigo or black. Rinse the brush between colours. Common mistake: painting over wet paint, which makes the colours muddy.
  8. Outline every shape with a fine black line
    When all the paint is completely dry, trace around every shape with the black fineliner (or a size 0 brush and black paint), in one confident stroke each. Outlines are the signature of pattachitra, so keep them even. Add the eyes and the details inside the shapes. If a line wobbles, go over it again slightly thicker rather than trying to erase it.
  9. Fill the gaps with dots and flowers, and add border patterns
    Fill any gap bigger than a fingernail with a small flower, a leaf or a row of dots, using the tip of the size 0 brush and white paint. Add a repeating pattern of small triangles or chain loops to the border. Stand back and look at the whole patta from an arm's length to see where the empty patches are.
  10. Dry 24 hours, trim the edges and add a hanging rod
    Let the painting dry flat for 24 hours. Trim the edges neatly with scissors, about 5 mm outside the border. Fold the top edge over a bamboo skewer by about 1.5 cm and glue it down with white glue, then let the glue dry for 30 minutes. Tie a loop of thread to both ends of the skewer to hang it. Wash your brushes and put the lids back on the paints.

Sustainability

Medium - reuses old cotton; flour paste is food-based. Acrylic paints are plastic-based

Safety

Paste and paint stains; use a flat, covered table. Do not eat the paste