The Craft

What you hold in your hands has a history.

Not a marketing story — a real history. Techniques refined over four centuries. Skills passed from parent to child. Knowledge that exists nowhere on paper, only in the hands that practice it.

This page is about that history. Not because heritage sells — but because understanding what goes into a piece changes what it means to own it.

The Hands

You cannot rush a craftsman.

The hands that shape EREL pieces have been shaping brass for decades — some for generations. They work at the pace the material demands. A surface is finished when it's finished. A form is balanced when the eye says so, not the clock.

What you receive is the result of skill that cannot be hurried, taught in a week, or replicated by machine.

The Makers Our primary artisan partners work in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh — a city that has been India's brass capital for over four hundred years. The families we work with have been casting metal for three, sometimes four generations.

This isn't nostalgia. It's what produces the quality.

A master caster reads molten brass by colour alone. No thermometer. Forty years of watching metal teaches what instruments cannot. He knows when the alloy is ready by the way it moves. He knows when a mould will fail before it does.

This is the knowledge behind every EREL piece — not trained in weeks, but developed over decades. The steadiness to carve a 2mm line. The eye that catches an imbalance before the mould sets. The instinct for when the patina is ready.

Some things only hands can know.

Fair Practice We work directly with artisan families. We pay fairly — not the minimum, but what the work is worth. We don't push for volume at the expense of quality. We don't negotiate prices that force corners to be cut.

This isn't charity. It's how you get the best work.

The Techniques

Some methods survive because nothing has replaced them.

Modern manufacturing optimises for speed and cost. Heritage techniques optimise for quality and durability. They take longer. They cost more. And they produce results that machines cannot replicate.

These are the techniques behind every EREL piece:

Sand Casting The oldest method of metal casting, refined over millennia. Molten brass is poured into moulds made from packed sand mixed with clay. The sand captures fine detail while allowing gases to escape, producing solid, void-free pieces with excellent surface quality.

Why it matters: Sand casting produces the weight and solidity that distinguishes premium brass from hollow, plated alternatives. When you pick up an EREL piece, you feel the substance. That's sand casting.

Time required: 4-6 hours per piece, plus cooling time.

Lost-Wax Casting (Cire Perdue) For intricate pieces with fine detail, we use lost-wax casting — a technique documented in India since the Chola dynasty, over a thousand years ago. A wax model is coated in clay, heated until the wax melts away, and molten brass is poured into the resulting cavity.

Why it matters: Lost-wax captures detail that sand cannot — the expression on a deity's face, the folds of a garment, the curve of a finger. The intricacy you see in EREL pieces is the result of this process.

Time required: 8-12 hours per piece, including wax modelling.

Hand Finishing Every EREL piece is finished by hand. Files, scrapers, and polishing tools remove casting marks and refine surfaces. This is where the piece transforms from raw casting to finished object.

Why it matters: Machine finishing is uniform and fast. Hand finishing is responsive — the artisan adjusts pressure, angle, and technique based on what the piece needs. The result is a surface that feels intentional, not industrial.

Time required: 3-6 hours per piece, depending on complexity.

Hand-Applied Patina The final surface treatment — patina — is applied by hand using chemical solutions and heat. The artisan controls the depth and evenness of the patina by timing, temperature, and technique. This is not a coating applied mechanically. It's a finish developed through experience.

Why it matters: Hand-applied patina deepens over years, not weeks. It becomes more beautiful with time. Machine-applied finishes degrade. Hand-applied finishes mature.

Time required: 1-2 hours, plus drying and sealing.

Total Time A single EREL piece requires 12-20 hours of skilled work before it reaches you. This is why the quality is visible. This is why the price is what it is. This is why nothing is rushed.

The Heritage

Traditions survive because someone keeps choosing them.

Not museums. Not grants. Not government programmes. People — deciding that this is worth having in their homes. Worth paying for. Worth keeping alive.

The techniques behind EREL pieces were invented for temples and palaces. They were designed to create objects that would outlast the dynasties that commissioned them. Durability wasn't a feature. It was the entire point.

Four centuries later, the methods remain — because nothing better has replaced them. The same processes that created pieces still standing in Rajasthan now create pieces for your home.

Your Role When you choose EREL, you join that line.

You become part of why these techniques still exist. Why these families still practice. Why four hundred years of accumulated knowledge has someone to pass to.

You're not buying decor. You're continuing something.

See the result. explore the collection ->