Fashioning Goa’s Windows

Artists, curators and experts become catalysts for social change by offering an atmosphere of both uninhibited creativity along with advice on technical, digital and organisational skills.

Migrant communities in constricted habitats learn to reach out to a larger world where they can link the history and art forms of Goa with their newly developed talents, and helps them better their social and economic status.

The Women@Work program has been nurtured by Sharda Kerkar, the daughter of Subodh Kerkar, the man behind the Museum of Goa. His artistic ideas blossom under the creative hands of a women’s group she established.

It is a livelihood programme that aims to empower underprivileged women communities by honing their creative, social and digital skills to create livelihood opportunities. Beginning with 30 women in this start-up venture, it intends to include 500 women of the area.

Moulds are prepared out of silicon rubber on which the window designs are etched.

It is a simple resin casting process, which is done by a group of householders from less privileged sections of society.

The epoxy resin which is mixed with hardener is poured into the mould, that finally takes the shape of the window.

This is the inside of a rubber mould. Intricate detailing of the window is etched onto it, which gets filled with resin once it is poured inside.

It is done to avoid direct contact of resin with rubber as they might stick together while removing the windows.

The women wear gloves for safety as resin is a chemical with which they should avoid direct contact.

The craft of making small replicas of
Goa’s special windows is not a result of any traditional practice.

Introduction of new craft skills in comfortable and safe workspaces offer dignity to women who had no capacity to earn.

The process of pouring resin into the
mould is done quickly to avoid hardening, which would not give the desired effect.

After pouring the resin into the mould, the solution is gently spread uniformly.

This insures that the shape and thickness of all the cast windows remains same.

Resin in the molten state inside the
rubber mould.

The moulded fibreglass window goes through different stages before they are ready to be painted in bright colours.

Dark brown in colour, the resin windows are then carefully taken out of their respective moulds.

The windows which have faulty edges are then subjected to a grinding process, which adds finesse to the surface.

After the windows are taken out of the moulds, they are kept in water for some time, before the grinding process.

The resin windows are washed with soap water to get rid of any particulate matters, before they are ready for the white coating.

The models are sent to the Museum of Goa premises where the base white colour, or primer, is sprayed on by men who assist at the museum workshop.

When the model window frames are painted white, they are distributed to a larger group of women for painting.

Each painter gets as many frames as she wishes to work on, and left to select her own colour palette.

The replicas of a variety of actual windows which are so much a part of Goa’s chequered history, are given new life through colours with a paintbrush.

Painting each model in a different colour becomes a way of self-expression and creativity for the newly developing artist.

Their awareness of the architecture of Goa’s old windows help the women bring life to their art work.

Young girls and elder women are equally enthusiastic about trying out their own colour ideas.

Women who have an inclination for painting are invited from the vicinity to paint the windows at the workshop or at home once the basic model is completed by the permanent group.

The Women@Work group gather in a group to paint their model shell windows with their own colour choices and creative flair.

Using arcylic paint with the help of brushes, they give life to these little resin windows that are reflection of the real ones.

The working group consists of Kavita Singh, Swarupa Kamli, Sharmamala, Savita Sutar and Meena Prajapati who make the windows.

Then they go to a bigger group for painting.

Apart from window modelling they now make screen printed fish shapes stuffed with cloth and stitched into keychains and magnets.

There are over six designs of marine creatures illustrated by artist Subodh Kerkar. Cowries which were originally used as a form of currency and also widely used all over India by folk communities as decorative embellishments, are hand-stitched onto sack-like cloth into different shapes, forms and sizes.

Read more about window modelling from Goa here:
- Goa’s Windows
- Museum of Goa