House of Hobbies - 4 -- Shweta Bhattad: Mouth-watering mirage

Crazy and creative, passionate and positive, influential and introverted, happy and hopeful – the hobbyists find their pleasure within. They select and collect; craft and create; preserve and protect, and enjoy in their own mysterious world. ‘House of Hobbies’ was my effort to peep into the world of hobbyists in Nagpur. This series was published in The Hitavada in September-October 2010. Take a look...

Shweta Bhattad: Mouth-watering mirage

(Wax Modeler Shweta Bhattad)

If Shweta Bhattad offers you something to eat, just hold on and check the dish out. This charming, fair girl in her mid-twenties will officially become Master of Fine Arts from Maharaja Sayajirao University, (MSU), Baroda, next year; however, she has already earned mastery in creating delicious-looking mirage in the form of wax art. “Kids cry for ice-creams and fruits, pani pooris water youngsters’ mouths, and my friends impulsively eat up the sweets before I can tell them that these are made of wax.” So real are the creations by this wax-modeler.

A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in sculpture from CISFA, Shweta never had a formal training in wax-modeling. “Because no one teaches this,” she says. She developed fascination for wax while studying in ‘crucial’ Class XII. “Initially, I used to make candles -- then colorful ones -- and later of various shapes. There was the all-important HSC exam, but my parents never stopped me,” says Shweta, while crediting every achievement in her flourishing career to her parents, Usha and Purushottam Bhattad.

After winning bagful of awards and critical acclaim over the years for her unique style of sculpture-making, she was selected by prestigious MSU, Baroda last year – a matter of pride for the Orange City. Well, but the reason behind her choosing the Fine Arts lies right here in the wax. “I was trying to make out something from wax. To get proper knowledge of shades, I opted for Fine Arts,” says the scholar, who is expecting to grab a fellowship for foreign studies next year and to visit famous Madame Tussaud’s Museum someday. “It’s a very complicated job to melt wax, mix colours– that too, in the exact quantity, keeping in mind that the wax changes colour as it cools down. It is not possible to paint the piece or to cover a food item with transparent wax to make an art piece. To make it look real, you have to work hard, for hours and days and weeks, without losing concentration, all for one art piece,” Sweta shares her experience.

“Mummy is a master in deciding colour quantity. It will be impossible for me to work without her help. Tins and tins full of wax have gone waste during my initial days. But Papa never said ‘no’ to purchase another tin,” she says even as her father looks on with an indulgent smile. “We just could not stop her after seeing the magical creativity,” he says.

“For making rice, or noodles, she holds hot wax on her palms to shape it. This hurts,” – a mothers’ concern. Shweta dreams of creating a wax museum in Nagpur in which each and every food item will be ‘waxinated.’ Let’s share the dream with the Orange City’s own budding Madame Tussaud.