DHAMRAI METAL CRAFT

You will not be able to miss this impressive stay in the main street of Dhamrai. A property of the Banik family, the wax metal has been lost for six generations. The family, Hindu, specializes in the manufacture of copper statues mainly intended for sale to temples or to adorn family altars. The entrance is made by the shop, incredible collection of statues of all sizes, apsaras, oil lamps, Tibetan bowls, mortars, piluliers and other objects to the uncertain utility. Crossing the four pieces is a visit to the museum, the discovery of Ali Baba's cave, a plongée or a stroll through the bazaar. At the exit of this amazing store, you will be débouchez in the central courtyard with a gallery on its four sides. In the centre of the throne there is a huge well that seems without substance. Statues are stored that and there, waiting to be finished. A man prepares clay that will serve as a mold, on the ground. By crossing the courtyard you get to the wax shaping workshop. Craftsmen first produce wax sculptures. They leave from a block they shape, shape, refine with a special, heated knife. Then they add the details with a heated wax bâtonner. The wax objects are then molded into clay and passed in the oven. The wax, which evaporates from the mould, leaves its mark in the mould. Copper in fusion is then released. He then married the shape of the interior of the mould. Once cooled, the mould is broken and the object cleaned.

The art of lost wax casting is a tradition of 2 000 years old. There were almost 200 workshops in Dhamrai. It will print only about ten. This includes the fact that the families practising this art are Hindu and that the population is now marginal in Bangladesh. The Banik family hardly bothered to make ends meet, faced with the désintérêt for Hindu art. To preserve its ancestral know-how, it expanded its offer by making objects of everyday life. She greets her visitors with the greatest of kindness, in an impeccable English, and without forcing her hand to buy a memory.