Visiting Big Bazaar Street: a practical guide
Parking, the quietest hours, where to eat and what else to see around Town Hall in Coimbatore.
How a kada is engraved by hand in our workshop
From a plain gold band to a creeper pattern: six days at the bench with our engraver, Murugesan.
Our kada pair weighs 28.0 g and sells as plain gold with a hand-engraved creeper running around it. Most people see only the finished pattern. Here is what happens at the bench above our shop before it reaches the counter.
The kada starts as a 22K gold wire, drawn to the right thickness and bent around a steel mandrel to the customer’s size. The two ends are fitted with a screw joint, soldered and filed until the seam disappears. At this stage it is a smooth, slightly rounded band, polished to a dull shine.
Murugesan, who has engraved at our bench for 22 years, then draws the creeper freehand on the surface with a fine steel point. He does not use stencils, which is why no two of our kadas are quite the same. The kada is fixed in a ball of lac on a wooden stick so he can turn it while he works.
Engraving is done with small chisels called gravers, pushed by hand. Each leaf takes six to eight cuts, and a full kada has about 140 leaves. The deeper cuts are made first, then fine shading lines, so that light catches the pattern from every angle. A pair takes him four days. Finally the kada is cleaned in a warm soap bath and polished with a soft brush, never a buffing wheel, which would round off the sharp edges of the cuts. If you are in the shop on a weekday afternoon, ask to watch him for a few minutes.
