MetalCraft in Nepal – How they are made

By iMartNepal 6 years ago 527

Before making the copper, bronze (with gold or silver plated) Metal Crafts, first all the sculpture is made in pure wax. (The wax is generally made from hilly beehives(“The honey hunting of Nepal” documentary is renowned documentary from Nepal). Districts like Gorkha, Lamjung , langtang, and some parts of Manang are very famous for wild beehives, later these beehives are traded in local market and from there these wax are made.

A Nepali artisan casting metal by hand to make awesome metal crafts

Once the wax sculpture is prepared and all designs are done in it. The next step is mixture formation, where cow dung, dark clay and other raw materials are mixed together and mixture is made.

Now the mixture is poured all around the wax sculpture surface and let it dry for few hours, when it is completely dry there comes next phase which is most essential phase.

Let suppose we are making copper/bronze metal craft.

Now the copper is melted in high degree Celsius making it in liquid form. Once it is turned into liquid form the melted copper is poured into wax sculpture from small hole making wax inside mixture. Then it is left for 2-3 hours to make it cool. Later on the outer portion of mixture is beaten with hammer and removed; now the shape of sculpture is formed in copper shape (leaving the wax, because all the wax is melted out). These copper metal craft are again designed with the help of iron nails by beating of small hammer. Afterwards, gold plating or silver plating is done to make it more attractive.

Bipin Bajracharya - A Handicraft Artisan