Starter Kit. Idea 41 of 500. Cluster 2
Brass and bronze casting in the Kandyan tradition, watched from pour to polish
The mechanism, from the book
The craft cannot be copied and the object can. In Europe people queue to watch glass being blown and then buy the glass.
The first step
Contact a brass workshop working in the Kandyan tradition and ask whether visitors may watch a pour from a safe distance, then the finishing. Agree a fee per visitor and a table to sell pieces. Bring one small group on a casting day. Paid entry, and pieces bought after the pour, are the proof that the watching sells the object.
- Who pays first
- Visitors around Kandy who want to see how temple brass is made and buy a piece they watched being finished.
- What leaves today
- Brassware sells as a finished object on a shop shelf; watching the pour sells the tradition and lifts the price of the piece.
Ask first
- National Crafts Council. Ask which brass foundries they know and whether visitors could watch safely.
- Central Environmental Authority. Ask what rules apply to fumes and waste from a small foundry.
Check before you spend
That visitors are kept at a safe distance from molten metal, what insurance covers them, and what the foundry needs for fumes and waste.
Find out these three numbers
- What will a visitor pay to watch a pour and buy the piece?
- How often does the foundry pour in a normal week?
- How many visitors can watch safely at one time?
A comparison from the book
Kandy hub. Appendix
"The hub is the crafts and tea showcase on the lake, with the tasting room, the drum-maker"
The book places the brass foundry inside the Kandy hub, open to visitors.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.