The story
The Molela plaque is a rare relief form: figures are pulled forward out of a flat sheet of clay, hollow behind, then fired to a warm terracotta orange. Pastoral communities have carried these to their shrines for centuries.
Mohan Lal's sun panel takes the radiant solar motif at the heart of the tradition and builds it up in coils and pressed clay over nearly three weeks.
Fired in a traditional open kiln, no two pieces take the heat identically — the colour variation across the batch is a record of the fire itself.
The making
From earth to object
Molela votive plaques · 800+ years — a tradition kept alive by hand.
- 01
Flat sheet base
A single even sheet of local clay is laid as the ground from which every figure will be raised.
- 02
Raising the relief
Coils and pressed clay build the figures forward, leaving the back hollow — the signature of a true Molela plaque.
- 03
Open-kiln firing
Fired in the open with wood and cow-dung cakes, each panel emerges with its own depth of terracotta colour.
Where your money goes
0%
of this purchase is paid directly to Mohan Lal Prajapati — the hands that made it.
How we pay our makers →Provenance
Certificate of authenticity
Every piece ships with a digital certificate recording exactly what you have collected, and the hand that made it.
- Artisan
- Mohan Lal Prajapati
- Craft origin
- Molela votive plaques · 800+ years
- Created
- 2026, Molela, Rajasthan
- Materials
- Local terracotta, open-kiln fired
- Edition
- Small batch · 6
- Maker's mark
- Hollow-backed relief, fired in a traditional open kiln.
The maker
Mohan Lal Prajapati
Terracotta relief plaques · Molela, Rajasthan
In the village of Molela, Mohan Lal raises figures out of flat clay — hollow-backed votive plaques carried to shrines across the Aravalli hills.
See the full profile →
