A cluster is defined as a geographic concentration (city/town/few adjacent villages and their adjoining areas) of units producing near similar products and facing common opportunities and threats. An artisan cluster is defined as geographically concentrated (mostly in villages/townships) household units producing handicraft/handloom products. In a typical cluster, such producers often belong to a traditional community, producing the long-established products for generations. Indeed, many artisan clusters are centuries old Artisan.

About Mahanandi Cluster:-

Mahanandi Cluster falls under Andhra Pradesh  State in Mahanandi district.

The Mahanandi  cluster is able to form 200 plus Artisans & 10 SHGs supporting the strong work force. The mobilization gains momentum day by day.

Stone Carving craft:-

Stone carving is an ancient activity where pieces of rough natural stone are shaped by the controlled removal of stone. Owing to the permanence of the material, evidence can be found that even the earliest societies indulged in some form of stone work.

Work carried out by Paleolithic societies to create flint tools is more often referred to as knapping. Stone carving that is done to produce lettering is more often referred to as lettering.

Stone carving differs from stone as in marble quarrying in that it is the act of shaping or incising the stone, whereas quarrying is the activity of acquiring useful stone, usually in blocks, from geological sources.

The term stone carving is of particular significance to sculptors being a reference to a particular way of producing sculpture, as opposed to modeling in clay or casting. The term also refers to the activity of masons in dressing stone blocks for use in architecture, building or civil engineering. It is also a phrase used by archaeologists, historians, and anthropologists to describe the activity involved in making some types of petroglyphs.

 Raw Materials:-

 The Basic Materials are:-

 1. Hard granite

 2. Soft Gray granite

 3. Mysore stone

 4. White granite

 Process:-

The crafts person while working on the Hard granite first studies the natural design contains in the stone selected to work upon. The shaping is done thereafter very carefully with chisel and hammers. Water is sprinkled repeatedly to avoid heat generation. The stone is smoothened by rubbing with sand papers or file.

Dimensions of the figure to be manufactured are marked on a stone slab. Extra edges are removed from the slab by beating with a hammer. Big pieces of stone are cut vertically into smaller slabs, and rough sketches are made on it. The article is taken out from the slab with the aid of a saw. This slab is now converted in the form of the desired figure with a hammer and a chisel. Minor carvings are done by pointed chisel. A hammer and chisel do further smoothening. Before carving the stone is kept in boiling water overnight and treated chemically. This smoothens and whitens the surface of the stone. Polishing is done for the final finishing with sand or carborundum pieces. Several of the carved artifacts are painted. Others are fitted with the looking glasses, brass fittings etc.

In carving an image, the stone carver sketches a rough outline of the sculpture on the stone - block. The craftsmen, sprinkle water on the stone during the course of their work because of the friction generated due to the constant chiseling away of the unwanted material results in the tools heating up. Finishing is accomplished in a variety of ways from sand-papering, polishing with multani-mitti or clay, oil and cloth.

An outline is drawn on hard or soft stone which is already cut to the appropriate size. Once the outline is incised indicating the shape, the final figure is brought out by removing the unwanted portions. While for the harder stones this is done by chiseling out the extra material, with softer stones. This is done by scraping out the same with a sharp flat-edged iron tool.

Techniques:-

The carving process essentially has the following sequence: Selecting the stone and Sketching, Rough dressing to remove material to get the basic shape, smooth/Flat dressing to define the details, Fitting the surface, finishing the surface with a variety of carbarundam stones (chane kallu) and Final Polishing with water and emery papers.

The main techniques are following below:-

 1. Cutting

2. Grinding

3. Buffing

4. Polishing

How to Reach:-

By Air:-

Indian Airlines operate flights on a day-to-day basis to and from Bhubaneswar. Along with that, there are a number of private airlines that connect it with the major cities of India, like Delhi, Chennai, Calcutta, Vishakhapatnam, Varanasi and Nagpur, by air.

By Road:-

Bhubaneswar is well connected to almost every part of the country by the national highways. Buses and taxis are easily available from Bhubaneswar for traveling within the state as well as going to the neighboring ones.

By Train:-

Bhubaneshwar is very well linked with the rest of India by railways. There are various super fast trains that link the city with other major cities, like New Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad.