We weren't kidding when we said Tārkashi is intricate, laborious, and a highly-skilled craft. Here's our craftsman Bahar Ahmed fusing all the raw materials into a perfect symphony.
🔨 The process:
1. Seasoning and cutting the wood
The moisture from the wood is removed by stacking it between two planks and letting it dry. The seasoned wood is cut into the shape and dimension decided on.
2. Preparing the metal strips
It seems simple enough but it's all done by hand and requires a remarkable amount of precision and patience. A sheet of brass is marked with one-inch wide strips, cut freehand, hammered on one side to make it sharp, and further cut with a pair of scissors. The wires are then straightened with a chimti.
3. Marking, engraving, and inlaying the wood
The blocks of wood are marked by pasting a strip of paper with our design. It is engraved with a chisel and hammer. The sharp edge of the brass taar is then inlayed in the wood with the rounded edge along the surface. The excess wire is lobbed off by twisting it by hand.
4. Levelling, filling, scraping, and buffing
The wood is sanded, filled with a mixture of sawdust, fevicol, and water to fill and even out the engravings, and then dried in the sun. It is then scraped with a blade and sanded to a smooth finish. It is finally buffed and rubbed with a cotton cloth with wax polish.