Monal Candlestand Centrepiece

Price inclusive of GST

This Centrepiece is the work of three national awardees of different crafts:

Brass wax casting

Etching and Repousse on silver

Gulaabi Meenakari

All three artforms are currently facing severe threat from mass produced, low quality copies.

In wax casting, a form is first sculpted in a specialised kind of wax by hand. This is then covered in clay and left to dry for a few weeks. The clay is then baked with the wax inside, and a hole is opened to let the wax flow out. Brass is then poured through this hole. Once the alloy has cooled down, the cast is broken to reveal the wax form now in metal. This means each piece can only be made once.

You may notice from the shape of the twig that it cannot be made with a reusable cast with two halves splitting open.

The Monal itself is sculpted with a thick sheet of pure silver. Once the basic form is made, outlines of feathers and eyes etc are made.

The supreme technique of etching will reveal itself on closer inspection of the bird's feathers. Each feather is underlined with multiple etching lines that give the shimmering effect under the coloured glass.

The last technique that brings the bird to life is Gulaabi Meenakari of Varanasi.

Endemic to the ghats and tracing roots in Persian Meena work, Gulaabi Meena was traditionally used to make idols of gods and goddesses to take back as souvenirs on pilgrimages by affluent patrons. It is the technique of painting with super fine crushed, coloured glass, that is mixed with an intriguing anardana glue before being fired. The mastery in Meena work can be seen from the seamless melding of colours, and the artist's response to the raised borders of silver.

The bird is removable for easy storage.

The Monal is a pheasant endemic to the Himalayas, as is the Silver Oak (also called Banj Oak) on which the bird is sitting.

This is a limited edition piece. Only 7 such others have been produced by South of Indus. Please visit our Instagram page to watch its creation.