Bengali Turtle

Dimensions: 10cm long, 8cm wide, 5cm high
Code: CLAY 0121

I found this gorgeous turtle in the Kolkata showroom of the Crafts Council of West Bengal, a non-profit organisation. This turtle has been coated with lac and would have been made by a sankhakar, (a conch shell craftsperson). Originally these craftspeople made bangles from conch shells, however, with the decline in demand, as people move to plastic they began making toys and votive figurines. The terracotta is crafted by hand and then heated in a small oven before being coated with lac, a resin produced by the female lack insect found in the forest. In the 1970s West Bengal was a hub of the world turtle trade but today is a hub for turtle conservation and protection. Read more about the Sea Turtles of India (https://www.seaturtlesofindia.org/about/distribution/west-bengal/) and you can make a contribution to their protection via http://naturewildlife.org/