Ron and Sally Jo Blog

We visited a brass maker using the “lost-wax” method of producing bronze figures. Fascinating!  These are not mass-produced products; each one is individually created and moulded.  Briefly, the process requires a person to create the object out wax.  (Here they use beeswax and paraffin.)  They then cover it with three different layers of clay.  The first is very thin and is painted on the object.  The second is thicker, while the third is even thicker.  Two air pipes are created in the piece.  The object is then left to dry.  The object is baked in a fire; the wax eventually melts and runs out through the pipes.  At the appropriate time, the object is taken from the fire and the hot metal is poured in through the air vent from which the wax flowed out.  The object cools.  When completed the outside clay mould is chipped off.  It is then that the artist knows for sure what the object will look like.  Various things may go wrong and the artist may lose his creation!  But if the moulding is successful, an original, unique object has been created.  The artists produce mainly Hindu and Buddhist objects.

Beside the captivating process of the art, the story of this Hindu family is also interesting.  The man who is now the owner is the fifth generation brass maker still working in the original home.  However, there have been disruptions along the way.  During the War of Independence (1971), the family had to flee to India.  The mother told of the journey which was mainly by walking and by boat.  She had 6 year old and 25 month old children.  They often walked at night—completely quiet—to avoid conflicts.  They hid during the day.

After the war was over, they returned to their home only to find that their Muslim neighbours had taken over the house and destroyed much of it.  Through a legal process, they were able to get their home back.  However, many of the villagers are still not friendly, and they do live in fear.

They have an additional problem now—selling their objects.  It is very difficult to export because of regulations.  He said that recently, it took 1½ years to get a permit to export a shipment of 100 pieces.  This is original art and is not inexpensive!  They rely a great deal on tourism.  However, since the recent terrorist acts, tourism has dropped dramatically.  They are unsure of their future.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 30th, 2016 at 11:48 am and is filed under Bangladesh. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.