At the four-day Paper Mask and Ceramic Workshop at Safiuddin Shilpalay, participants discovered that handmade art is rarely immediate. It grows through patience, observation and repeated attempts. Held from 17 to 20 July 2026, the workshop introduced participants to paper-mask construction and ceramic work. Leading the workshop was Asraful Kabir Kanak, a Bangladeshi ceramic artist, painter, sculptor, paper-mask artist, graphic designer and art educator.
Before starting to work as a freelance artist, Kanak had spent more than 20 years at a reputed company working in showroom interior and exterior design, event management and dealer sales. However, the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything for him.
“There was no work, so I started doing this,” he recalls. “I had already worked for Pahela Baishakh — making horses, fish and other objects for the processions. During COVID, I became fully involved in paper masks.”
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The idea of teaching the craft developed around the birth anniversary of eminent artist Safiuddin Ahmed. According to Kanak, Ahmed Nazir, Safiuddin Ahmed’s son, proposed holding a two-week festival and asked him to plan an activity. Kanak suggested paper-mask making because very few artists now practise or teach the form.
The initiative attracted around 75 children, including those associated with an autism-focused foundation. Their enthusiasm encouraged him to continue.
“The children were very interested in making masks,” Kanak says. “After the programme became successful, many people who had missed it, or had not initially understood what a paper mask was, contacted us. That encouraged us to arrange another workshop.”
In the future, Kanak hopes to organise separate workshops devoted to paper masks, terracotta, and other forms of ceramic art.
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The combined format nevertheless showed how closely the two mediums are connected. Both require an understanding of proportion, structure, and three-dimensional form. Clay responds directly to pressure, while a paper mask depends on how a flat drawing is transformed through cutting, joining and folding.
For Kanak, drawing is the foundation of paper-mask making. A mistake in the initial design affects every stage that follows.
“If I want to make the full body of a bird, it requires immense labour,” he says. “You have to draw carefully. If the drawing is not good, the final result will not be good. If the drawing of the bird is correct, the mask will also turn out correctly.”
To make the process accessible, he taught beginners through simplified steps. Participants first drew designs on offset paper, traced them and transferred the outlines onto mount board or similar material. They then cut, joined and folded the pieces before adding colour.
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“I showed them how to fold, how to join the pieces and how to cut neatly,” he shares. “They understood the process, and now they are creating their own motifs in their own styles.”
This movement from following instructions to developing original designs was one of the workshop’s most meaningful outcomes. Participants were not simply copying examples. Once they understood the construction process, they began experimenting with their own colours, shapes and decorative details.
Kanak believes the growing dependence on digital tools has reduced opportunities to work directly with physical materials.
“Everything has become computer-based,” he observes. “People can find graphics, watercolours and almost everything online. Many do not choose handmade work because it requires time, mental effort and hard labour.”
Access is another challenge. Ceramics is taught at fine arts institutions, but people outside those spaces rarely have access to pottery wheels or trained instructors. Paper construction and mask-making are even less widely available.
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“Many people want a place where they can experience the wheel and spend time learning,” Kanak explains. “That is why we are returning to handmade crafts, and the response has been very encouraging.”
He plans to hold regular workshops at Safiuddin Shilpalay and gradually develop the initiative into an informal art school. He also hopes to take workshops into schools and different areas of Dhaka before Bengali New Year, enabling communities to create their own procession materials.
Kanak’s work also extends to social inclusion. As founder of the Beit Alpha Autistic Foundation, he supports children with autism through art therapy, education, recreation, healthcare assistance and food support. He also serves as an organiser of Mangal Shobhajatra O Gobeshona Kendra, working to preserve and promote Bangladeshi folk art and community-based cultural practices.
The masks and clay objects made at the workshop may not have been perfect, but each carried evidence of learning. They showed that with paper, clay and patient guidance, an idea can move beyond the screen and take a physical form of its own.
Photo: Abrar Faiyaz Niloy
