Brass Village

When we stayed at the Four Villages Bed & Breakfast in Kumasi, we noticed a few unique brass pieces and discovered they were made at a nearby brass village.  I don't know why they call it a brass village because it was just one small shop.  The artist learned the trade from his grandfather and passed it on to his son.  They use a very old lost wax technique that is pretty fascinating.  They were happy to show us how it is done.  The materials are inexpensive, but the labor and time involved is pretty incredible.  All you need is cow dung, clay, palm fiber, bees wax, charcoal and scrap brass from broken locks!  (Unless you live near Mankessim, then you can buy the brass at the market for 3 cedis a kilo.)  

In the picture above he is making beads for a necklace.  First they mix cow dung and clay together to form a mold.  Using a threader, they form long strings of bees wax.  They apply the bees wax to the mold to create the desired design.  The brass will replace the wax when it is poured  

You can see a string of wax in this pile of beads which are in various stages of completion. 

Charcoal is crushed and sifted until it is a fine powder.  Then it is mixed with a little water to make a runny paste.  The bead is dipped in the charcoal.  When it is dry it is dipped again.

Because the beads are small, several of them are placed together and a thicker mixture of charcoal and water is poured over them and left to dry.

After the brick is dry another string of wax is connected to each bead in the brick.  Each string is joined together at the top.  These strings will feed the brass to each bead.

Charcoal is mixed with mud to create a thick paste.  It is applied to cover the brick and joined wax strings.  It looks like a pod and is left to dry completely until it is hard.  

Palm fiber is mixed with clay and water to create a mud paste.  

The mud paste is pressed around the entire pod and a small bowl is formed at the top where the wax strings are joined.  When it is completely dry, a small hole is drilled until the wax strings are exposed.

The bowl on the top is filled with brass pieces and covered with more mud paste. When it is completely dry, it is ready to fire.

A large quantity of hard charcoal is laid in the bottom of a 3 sided clay oven and ignited.  When it is hot, the pods are placed on the coals upside down, so the brass is on the bottom.  After 2 hours the flames turn blue and all of the wax has melted and burned out of the form.  Using tongs, the pods are removed from the oven and they are turned over so they are right side up.  All of the melted brass drains into the holes left by the melted wax.  When it is cooled, the pod is broken open.  The cow dung molds have turned to charcoal and are broken out of the middle of the bead.

(They make charcoal by igniting sticks that are about 4 feet long and about 2 inches thick.  They are covered with dirt and left to smolder for several days.  The dirt is removed and the sticks are now charcoal - who knew!) 

He didn't have an example of what the beads would look like because he hadn't fired them yet, but here are some other ornaments he poured.  

The brass bowl and threads are cut from the ornaments and re-cycled when the next pour is fired.  We were amazed at the detail they created with the wax.  

To brighten or clean it, you rub lemon juice with water on it.  To darken or stain it, you dip it in potassium and rub shoe polish on it.  They use shoe polish for everything.  Gray hair?  No worries, buff a little black shoe polish on your head.  ...Seriously! 

Of course we bought a few unique pieces.  We were happy with the education, and he was happy with the sale.  I was happy with the sale too, because I negotiated a GREAT price!  ;)