Handmade in India

Detail of a Dasavatara lamp depicting Vishnu as Anantha Shayanam, the form of the creator of the Hindu pantheon asleep on the snake Shesha on the bed
of the cosmic ocean.
BRONZE CASTING
Production Clusters
Kannur district:
Payyanur
Korom
Thayineri
Padoli
Kunhimangalam
Kasaragod district:
Kasaragod
Thiruvananthpuram
district:
Thiruvananthpuram
Thrissur district:
Ifinjalakuda
Vadakkancheri
Palakkad district:
Mannapra
Kannambra
Nenmara
Alathur
Angadipuram
The Moosaries, the community of
traditional metal workers of this region, are
adept at creating idols of various
Brahmanical deities using the lost wax
process. These are modelled on the human
body as per rules laid down in the
canonical text known as the Shipla Shastra
wherein strict iconographic rules and a
system of measurement based on the unit
as the tala, the distance between the
hairline and the end of the lower jaw, is
laid down. The process begins with the
preparation of a mixture of pure beeswax,
resin from a tree and groundnut oil. Using
a spatula, knife, and scraper, this subtance
is fashioned into the pattern; the head, body
and limbs are thus individually fashioned
and joined. Wax cross strappings and
runners are then affixed at appropriate
locations to strengthen the wax pattern as
well as to facilitate the flow of molten
metal into various parts. The surface of this
model is now coated with
layers of various clays to form a completed mould containing within it the original
wax pattern. This is heated in an open ground oven fuelled by cowdung cakes so
that the molten wax drains out through the runner. An alloy of copper, brass and
lead is made; the lead grants malleability thus facilitating the chiselling and
engraving of the icon while the brass is added to the copper to lower the melting
point of the alloy and to add and enduring lustre to the finished product. This
molten alloy is carefully poured into a previously heated mould; once cooled the
mould is broken and the details of the idol are engraved. The metal surface is
smoothed with fine grade emery paper and cleaned with a solution of tamarind and
soapnut; and finally, the piece is brushed with polishing sand and water.
1. An idol of Lord Kartikeya.
2. A bronze cast head of Varaha, the avatar of Vishnu in the form of a boar.
3. At a workshop in Payyanur, and idol of a Bhutathar made in a combination of
bronze and brass.
Products
Bronze idols
Tools
Chisels
Files
Coke furnace
Crucible
Clay / graphite
curcible
Cloth wound metal
ring
Iron rod and wire
reinforcements