Repoussé,
by hand.
Repoussé is one of the oldest ways of working metal. The relief is pushed outward from the back of a sheet, then defined from the front by chasing. Nothing is cast, pressed or cut by machine.
A craft once common across the subcontinent is slowly disappearing.
- 01Sheet
Every work begins as a flat, unmarked sheet of brass, cut to the size of the finished piece. Nothing about it yet suggests a form.
- 02Drawing
The design is drafted on paper first, studied from the architecture it comes from. Then it is transferred line by line onto the sheet.
- 03Hammering
Working from the back of the sheet, the form is pushed outward with the chasing hammer, the chithrai hathora. This is repoussé: the relief is raised, not carved.
- 04Chasing
Turned over, the surface is defined from the front with punches and chisels, the qalam. Lines are sharpened, edges set, texture struck in.
- 05Refinement
The metal is heated to keep it workable, then reworked. Each stage builds on the marks before it, until every line serves the drawing.
- 06The work
Finally the work is polished, finished and framed. Three to four days of hammering for most pieces; weeks for the most complex.
The bench.
Four things on the table, and eighteen years of knowing how to use them.
- Chithrai hathora
- The chasing hammer. Every strike that shapes the metal comes from it.
- Qalam
- Punches and chisels, each with its own tip, used to draw lines, set edges and strike texture.
- Wax bed
- Supports the sheet while it is worked, so the metal can move without tearing.
- Fire
- Heat keeps the brass workable between stages of hammering.
Every mark was
made by hand.