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Cast in brass by the Ghadwa metalworkers of Bastar, this horse-shaped bottle opener carries the fine ropework lines that mark genuine Dokra, with the horse forming the handle and the opener worked into its base. It is made by the lost-wax method, so the clay mould is broken to release each piece. No two are alike. A heavy little thing, it earns its place in a kitchen drawer and looks just as good left out on the counter.
NA Wipe with a soft dry cloth. Keep away from moisture.
Each piece is handcrafted, so slight variations in colour, texture and dimension are natural and celebrate its handmade origin.
This is a working object first, an ornament second. It suits a spot where both sides of it show, somewhere it will actually be reached for rather than tucked away.
In the kitchen, stand it on an open shelf or leave it in the cutlery drawer with the horse head facing up so it is easy to grab. The brass picks up warm light. A shelf near a window or under-cabinet lighting flatters the ropework detail and pairs naturally with other brass pieces, a diya, a small bowl, a measuring cup.
On a bar cart or a sideboard, it reads as a conversation piece. Set it beside the bottles and glassware where guests will pick it up and ask about it. The horse silhouette holds its own next to taller items.
Brass darkens slowly as it ages, taking on a deeper tone that some people prize and others polish back to a bright finish. Keep it dry. Wipe off moisture between uses, since standing water dulls the surface, and keep it away from the hob and the sink splash zone.
Dokra is a metal-casting craft carried on in Bastar, in southern Chhattisgarh, by the Ghadwa metalworkers around Kondagaon and Jagdalpur. The word Ghadwa comes from a root meaning to shape or to create. This horse is cast by the lost-wax method.
It begins with a core. The artisan shapes the rough form of the horse in river clay and lets it dry hard in the sun, and this core sits at the heart of the piece, giving the hollow cast its body.
Then comes the wax. Fine threads of beeswax are rolled by hand and wound around the clay core, line by line, building both the horse's shape and the rope-like surface that is the signature of Dokra. Every ridge you can feel on the finished metal began as one of these threads.
The waxed core is packed in a second clay coat, with channels left open, and set to dry. Molten brass is poured in. The heat burns the wax away completely, and the metal takes its exact place, which is why the craft is called cire perdue, lost wax.
When it cools, the outer clay is broken off and the inner core scraped out. The mould is destroyed in the making. It can never be reused, and that is the reason every Dokra horse is one of a kind. The piece is then filed, cleaned, and polished by hand to bring up the brass.
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Dokra is a 4,000-year-old tribal metal casting tradition using the lost-wax method to create one-of-a-kind brass figures, lamps, idols, and tribal décor.
