Mazoun Al Ghailani -
After trying various materials for carving, Rahma al Hajri finally settled down with bone carving as a unique art in Oman. There she gained an understanding of the customer’s high standards, especially the need to polish every mark to a satin-smooth finish.
Rahma al Hajri is a craftswoman who completed 11 years in the profession of sculpture on bones. Her love and passion for drawing inspired her to choose bones sculpture after she graduated from the Scientific College of Design in 2009. She started training at the Bidiyah Center for Carving on Bones. Trained by the virtuous sculptor Shander Kant, she later started working in the production of carved bone products.
Al Mandoos (ancient box) is the extraordinary artwork piece in her art career that took full three months of work. “I carved the bones in shape of this box, in order to participate in the Sultan Qaboos Award for Craft Excellence Competition 2010/2011 and there she won the first place. “The same product won in the world craft council award of excellence 2018,” Rahma said.
“This piece means a lot to me and I see it as a great achievement because of the time and effort I put on it. it gave me more confidence to accomplish more,” Rahma added.
She derives the idea of the sculptures from her imagination or from one of her drawings then she makes a sketch and starts carving. I always tend to carve new models and advanced shapes, especially the one that has a nature of Islamic character and Omani inscriptions”.
Mostly, Rahma makes traditional sculptures, but the options are limited by the size of the bones. Only the leg bones, the femur, and fibia are suitable, as the walls of the bone are thick enough to carve; other bones are too thin-walled and brittle.
“That is why I choose the camel bones, due to their large size and hardness. Obtaining and preparing the raw piece requires high effort and precision, unlike wood that comes as a ready-made and large tablet. I usually get them from camel’s breeders and prefer to work with bones that have lain on the ground for a few years. They are drier and sometimes develop a grain that can add interest to the work.” Rahma shared.
Rahma wishes to deliver a message to the community through her art focusing on the importance of preserving and protecting heritage.
She has a hobby of searching for ancient carved bones, but unfortunately, she could not get old sculptures, but she got new sculptures from the Republic of India.
Rahma is currently sculpturing a gift that she aspires to give to the honourable lady, the Spouse of HM Sultan Haitham. Rahma is generous in advice for anyone wishing to carve bone. While not everyone has access to dead camels, they can get bones from their butcher and have them cut to a manageable size.
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