KHATAMKARI

hatam Kari

Khatam Kari is defined as art of decorating the surface of objects with small equilateral triangles made of ivory, bone,wood and brass twisted wire which are laid side by side and result in a geometrical pattern. These triangles are put on the surface of inner, outer or both sides of wooden objects with the thickness of 2 centimeters. 

At the beginning Khatam was made using large triangles which were laid side by side, but gradually as artists gained more conversancy and verve, triangles become smaller and more delicate.

Overall, Khatam kari since its beginning has been under many changes. Khatam masters use such a different original woods that rarely are used in other branches of art. These raw materials include: areca wood, walnut wood, orange wood, Jujube wood, camel bone, brass twisted wire, hot isinglass, cold isinglass, formaldehyde, fiber and varnishes and plywood .many objects can be decorated using Khatam including Picture frames, cigarette boxes, rod, pipe, makeup boxes, key rings, pen holder and album cover. 

In Isfahan in addition to Khatam objects made following methods of Shiraz, silver and enamel are also used in Khatam Kari which can’t be found in Shiraz. Khatam box with miniature painting on its cap is a good example of creativity of Isfahn in Khatam Kari.