सोनचिरैया
Bharat –“ The Golden Bird”
A portrait of India formed not through boundaries alone, but through 168 individually handcrafted golden birds. Sonchiraiya reimagines the timeless idea of Bharat as the “Golden Bird” - a land whose true wealth has always lived in its people, cultures, craft and stories.
Story Behind the Piece
For generations, India has been lovingly imagined as Sone ki Chidiya - the Golden Bird.
For us, one bird was never enough to tell the story of a country as layered as India.
And so, 168 golden birds come together to form Bharat.
Each bird is small when seen alone, yet together they create something monumental. They become a metaphor for India itself - many hands, many traditions, many languages and many stories, held together within one land.
At the heart of the piece rests one word:
भारत
Everything radiates from it.
The birds seem to gather, travel and spread across the map, almost like stories moving from one generation to another. Some sit close together; others find their own space. Yet every single one belongs to the larger whole.
Sonchiraiya is our tribute to a country whose greatest wealth has never been gold alone, but the hands that create, the traditions that endure and the diversity that continues to hold us together.
About the Piece
The silhouette of India is handcrafted in wood and becomes the canvas for 168 individually made Dhokra birds, each placed by hand to create a flowing composition across the country.
Rather than treating the map as a geographical object, we imagined it as a living landscape of craft.
The warm wood grounds the piece, while the golden brass birds rise from its surface, catching light differently throughout the day. At its centre, भारत becomes both an anchor and a declaration of belonging.
No two birds are completely identical. Their minute variations in form, texture and finish are preserved intentionally - because a piece celebrating India should never feel mechanically perfect.
The design, wooden structure, composition, finishing and final assembly were completed at the Ocher Studio workshop in Bastar, where hundreds of individual elements slowly became one artwork.
168 birds. Hundreds of individual details. One Bharat.
About the Craft
The golden birds are created in Dhokra, Bastar's traditional lost-wax metal casting craft.
Each bird begins as a form shaped by hand and prepared for casting. During the lost-wax process, the original wax form disappears, allowing molten metal to take its place. What emerges carries the subtle marks and irregularities of the process - a texture that cannot be perfectly repeated by a machine.
It is this individuality that gives Dhokra its soul.
For Sonchiraiya, a heritage technique traditionally used to make individual objects and figurines has been repeated 168 times, then brought into an entirely contemporary composition.
Here, an ancient craft does not remain confined to the past.
It becomes part of a new Indian story.
About the Artisans
The Dhokra birds of Sonchiraiya were handcrafted by Aman and Narsing, generational artisans who inherited their knowledge of metal casting through their families.
Their contribution lies in the smallest element of the artwork - the bird - yet it is that repeated handmade element that gives the entire piece its identity.
The piece therefore represents something central to Ocher Studio's philosophy:
traditional knowledge and contemporary design do not need to exist separately.
When artisan and designer work together, heritage can continue evolving.
And perhaps that is what Sonchiraiya ultimately represents a Bharat made richer by every hand that contributes to it.
