Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Dhamrai Metal Craft (Photos)

Dhamrai is famous for its handicraft work. It is about 25 km from Dhaka and takes between 1.5 to 2 hours by bus from Asad Gate. From the bus stop you take a rickshaw to Dhamrai Bazar.

Sukanta Vanik, who owns Sukanta's Dhamrai Metal Crafts. His family has worked in metalcraft for 200 years.



To make a metallic object of art, the worker starts with wax..



...which is painstakingly rolled and cut...



... to make a replica of the object



A worker then covers this with a special type of mud...



...so the wax replicas look like this.



These are baked in this oven which melts the wax and hardens the mud into a mold:



Finally molten metal is poured into the mold to make the finished product:





Some of the art can take 5-6 months of work. I saw an exquisite merry-go-round of horses, about a foot in diameter, priced at Tk. 18000.

I saw many types of craft around Dhamrai Bazar, such as making Dhols (drums).

Many thanks to my friend Zahed for being guide.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

These sell very well in Gulshan 2. The mark ups are incredible, and sadly some antique dealers insist on passing the stuff off as antique rather than repro. Thanks for posting. Will visit this place next time i am in town.

Anonymous said...

Hello Sukanto uncle.. nice thinking & nice blog!! i helped all of my colleagues to view this site.. go ahead.. GOD bless you..

Debabrata Chakraborty Suman
S/O: Milon Kumar Chakraborty
# 01720-566039

Anonymous said...

Its really great to see your blog site.. i hope this is helpful to the people who show interest about metal ...

Partha Chakraborty said...

Its really great to see your blog site.. i hope this is helpful to the people who show interest about metal ...

Partha Chakraborty
Dhamrai, Dhaka
Mob: 01717629764

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