Frequently asked questions

Inside the Kathmandu valley, one to two days by Pathao and same or next day by our own rider. Elsewhere in Nepal, two to five working days by Pathao.

Those counts run from dispatch, not from when you ordered. Most pieces are dispatched within a couple of working days; a piece marked made to order is cast for you and its lead time is shown on the product page.

Inside the valley: Rs 100 by Pathao, or Rs 80 by our own rider. Both are free above a threshold shown at checkout. Elsewhere in Nepal, Pathao is priced by weight from Rs 200, which matters here more than in most shops — cast metal is heavy.

Collecting at our counter is free. The exact figure for your basket and address is calculated at checkout before you commit to anything.

Not through the checkout yet. The site quotes and books the three domestic options we actually operate, and we would rather not offer a courier that will refuse the parcel.

Export is possible and we arrange it by hand. Write to us with the piece and the destination and we will quote the freight, the packing and the paperwork.

Wrapped, braced and boxed so the figure cannot move inside the carton, with the crown, the raised hands and any separate attribute protected individually. Those are the parts that break, and they break in transit rather than in the workshop.

Large and heavy pieces are double-boxed. If a casting arrives damaged despite that, photograph it before unwrapping it any further and tell us — see the returns section.

Yes. Choose "Collect at the counter" at checkout and we will email you when the piece is ready. There is no delivery charge, and you can pay when you collect.

Because it is a different casting, and there is no way for it not to be.

Everything here is made by the lost-wax method: the artisan models the figure in wax, encases it in clay, fires the mould so the wax runs out, pours metal into the void, and then breaks the mould to get the casting out. The mould is destroyed to release the piece, so a second one is a second object rather than another copy of the same one. The face is then chased by hand, which is where the remaining difference comes from.

Small variations in the folds of a robe, the set of the eyes or the exact height are evidence of how the piece was made. A statue with none of them was stamped by a machine.

Within about a quarter of an inch, usually less. Listed heights are the nominal size the workshop casts to, measured from the base to the highest point of the figure — including the crown or a raised attribute where there is one.

If a piece has to fit an exact niche, tell us the clearance you have and we will measure the actual casting before it ships.

Close, but a photograph of metal is never the metal. Oxidized copper in particular photographs darker and flatter than it looks in a room, because the surface is what gives it depth and a screen cannot show that.

Gilt pieces go the other way and photograph slightly cooler than the fired gold looks in daylight. If the exact tone matters, ask for photographs of your casting under normal room light rather than studio light.

A deliberate dark surface, chemically applied to the copper and then selectively cut back so the raised detail catches the light. It is not tarnish and it is not an absence of gold — it is the finish that shows hand-chasing best, which is why the workshops use it on the pieces where the chasing is the point.

The one thing that ruins it is polish. See the care section.

No, and it is most of the price difference between two otherwise identical pieces.

In fire-gilding, gold is dissolved in mercury, painted onto the copper, and the statue is heated until the mercury drives off and leaves pure gold bonded to the surface. It is slow, hazardous work done by a few families in the valley, and it lasts generations. Electroplating deposits a far thinner layer electrically; it looks similar on the day you buy it and wears through at the edges within years.

Where a listing says fire-gilt, it is fire-gilt.

It says so on the product page. Every piece is listed under the workshop that cast it, and that workshop has a page of its own with the rest of its work on it.

That is the whole reason the shop is arranged this way: a statue that arrives with no answer to this question has usually passed through four or five hands, and the person who actually made it took the smallest margin of any of them.

Dust it weekly with a dry, soft cloth. A natural-bristle brush reaches into the crown, the jewellery and the petals of a lotus base.

Never use water, metal polish or any commercial cleaner. The dark tone is a deliberate chemical patina, and polishing strips it permanently — this is the single most common way a good casting is ruined, and it cannot be undone at home.

Fire-gilding is a thin skin of pure gold over copper and it abrades. Dust it only with a clean, dry cotton cloth and no pressure. No polish, no solvent, no water, and not a gritty microfibre cloth.

Handle it by the base or with cotton gloves. Skin oils leave marks on gold that set over time, and steady incense smoke dulls the surface over years.

Damp rooms, direct sunlight, and anywhere it can be knocked. A bathroom or an unheated porch will move a patina within a season; a sunny windowsill will do it more slowly.

Lift a statue by its base, never by an arm, a wing or an attribute. Those are cast thin and they are what breaks.

Sometimes. Send us photographs in daylight and we will tell you honestly whether it is worth doing — a scuff in a patina can often be re-toned by the workshop that made the piece, while gilding worn through to the copper generally cannot be spot-repaired without re-firing the whole surface.

If the mark was there when it arrived, it is a fault rather than a repair. See the returns section.

Most pieces can be returned within 14 days of delivery, unused and in their original packing. The full terms, including what is excluded, are in our refund policy — that page is the binding one, and this answer is a summary of it.

Tell us before you send anything back, so we can give you the right address and make sure the piece is packed well enough to survive the return trip.

Photograph it before you unwrap it any further — including the outer carton and the packing — and send us the pictures the same day. That evidence is what settles a claim with the courier, and it cannot be reconstructed afterwards.

We replace or refund a piece that arrives damaged, and we pay the freight both ways. You are not out of pocket for our packing or a courier's handling.

Refunds are issued within 10 days of the returned piece reaching us and being checked, to the method you paid with, or by bank transfer where that method cannot be reversed.

Because nothing is charged up front, a cancellation before dispatch needs no refund at all — there is nothing to return.

Pieces made or altered to your order, and pieces damaged after delivery. The exclusions are set out in full in our refund policy.

Normal variation between two castings is not a fault, and is not on its own a reason we treat a return as ours to pay for — but it is covered by the change-of-mind window like anything else, so you are not stuck with a piece you dislike.

Named workshops in Patan, Bhaktapur and Kathmandu, each with a page on this site listing the pieces it cast. We buy from them directly and pay them directly.

The alternative — the usual chain — puts four or five intermediaries between the artisan and the shelf, each taking a margin, with the person who made the object taking the smallest. Listing every piece under its workshop is what stops that arrangement from being invisible.

Yes to both, by arrangement rather than through the checkout. Tell us the figure, the finish, the size and the quantity, and we will come back with a price and a lead time from the workshop that would cast it.

A commissioned piece is not returnable for a change of mind, so we agree the specification in writing — and usually with reference photographs — before any wax is modelled.

Through the contact form, or by replying to any email we have sent you. We answer on working days, usually within one.

If your question is about an order you have already placed, quote the order number. It turns a guess into an answer.