About
Nepal and Nepalese silver craftsmen !
Nepal is a country of Natural splendor crowned by
eight of the 
world's
ten highest mountains (including Mt. Everest at 8848m.).
It has been gifted with varieties of stones. The usage
of these kinds of stone normally confined to religious,
spiritual or soothsaying purpose. Stones native to
Nepal are Sapphire, Aquamarine, Amethyst, Ruby, Garnet
and Tourmaline, among others.
This
is the birthplace of Lord Buddha who has known as
the light of Asia. Nepal is known as country of Temples,
land of Countless festivals and home of 22millions
people's in more than 70 Ethnic group each with it's
own unique culture and language spread out across
the country mostly in hamlets, villages and shanty
towns. It is a land lock country-sharing boarder with
Tibet Autonomous region of the Republican people's
of China in North and India in the East, West and
south respectively.
Jewellery
History in Nepal
In
fact, we don't know when exact date since when people
begun to use jewelry. It is said that it used to wear
during the Goods period. In Hinduism Goods period
means many centuries before BC.
Incontest
of Nepal since the Lichhivi dynasty (10th century)
it had been taken place as the attractive jewelry,
gradually its demand and attraction to the people
is highly being increased. Later on In the Malla dynasty
(15th century) it had been fully used as the jewelry.
Each and every age, we have very excellent skillful
craftsmen in the history of jewelry.
Silver
craftsmen of Nepal
We
are in more than 70 ethnic groups among 22millions
Nepalese. Mainly Silver craftsmen are from Newari
(Kathmandu) and Sunuwar (Mountains). They are in more
than 90% of total silver craftsmen in Nepal who have
being passed down the silver craftsmanship from generation
to generation.
There is not really a training classes or any other
institute that teaches them their profession. They
just learn it by seeing what their parent 
or
any other family member does. They begin to help their
elders in very young age when they hardly able to
handle tools. It won't be wrong to say that they learn
it when they just get in to teenage.
Unfortunately
they hardly finished their middle school or only primary
school. Still their craftsmanship is well known and
highly appreciated around the world. The reasons to
admire them are; they are so primitive, the work and
attention to the detail are incredible.
What
may impress westerns most is that the silver smithing
workshop in Nepal has not modernized to fit their
standards. Nepalese silver smith still starts with
hunks of silver and just starts chipping away. They
don't use any modern equipment yet that science and
technology created in the 21st century. If you see
our workshop at first time I bet you would say "OH
MY GOOD YOU ARE CENTURIES BEHIND"! And we would
say yes we are in natural world!
Our
manufacturing process:
- At first, we buy pure silver.
-
We met it very sincerely on the oven
-
Then we give it different shape and size as the
items required.
-
Before setting stones we put it in to the acid to
remove the dirt.
-
And then we rub rough hairbrush in to the items
to remove the rough lines made by tools and wash
in the warm water with detergent powder. After drying
up on the sunlight we oxidize the items if needed
-
We use second last polish to make the items clear
and set the stone on it.
-
At last, we use very precious polish to make the
items bright and attractive.
