Bhaktapur Brass Works

Brass rather than copper, and an antique finish rather than a patina — a warmer, yellower surface that is rubbed back on the high points so a figure reads as older than it is. The workshop casts standing figures in particular, which are harder than seated ones: the weight is carried on a smaller footprint and the mould has to fill a long thin void without a void of its own. It also casts the small pieces well, which is not a lesser skill — a three-inch face has the same number of decisions in it as a nine-inch one and a tenth of the room to make them. We buy from Bhaktapur outright rather than on commission, so these castings are ours and are priced and listed under Kalamandu. The workshop that made them is named here either way.