Sonali Prajapati

Sonali Prajapati has three years in the family workshop and works across the stages of production rather than specialising in one. From sifting and kneading the raw alluvial Banas River clay to rolling fine coils for ornamental borders, her work spans both traditional votive relief panels and contemporary wearable clay design.

Molela terracotta has never really been an individual practice. A single large panel passes through several pairs of hands between raw clay and finished piece, and the household works on it collectively — which is why the workshop sits inside the house rather than apart from it, and why work, home and community are not separate things here.

She works alongside her husband Umesh Kumhar and her parents-in-law, master artisans Dinesh Chandra Kumhar and Kailash Devi. Her involvement is part of a wider generational shift in Molela village, where women artisans are active at every stage of sculpting, detailing, and kiln firing rather than only the preparatory stages of clay tempering.

Within the Mridika terracotta jewellery line, Sonali shapes miniature relief pendants, jhumka ear drops, and geometric bead necklaces that adapt eight-century-old Mewar floral and temple motifs into lightweight, skin-friendly kiln-fired ornaments. Each bead is hand-pierced before leather-hard drying, coated in natural geru mineral earth slip, and fired to a warm terracotta sheen.

During visiting school and university design workshops at the Mohan Terracotta Centre, she also mentors students in fine coil work, surface incising with the bhaldi stylus, and traditional mineral pigment application.

By combining hereditary Rajasthani clay preparation with contemporary silhouette design, Sonali ensures that Molela terracotta reaches a new generation of urban wearers, museums, and craft collectors across India and abroad while keeping every step of fabrication rooted inside the village household.