The sound reaches you before the workshop does: a steady, ringing rhythm of hammers on hot bell metal. Inside, Jonali Das, 22, is shaping a plate that will take her three days to finish.
Until recently, she would not have been allowed to touch the hammer. In her village, the craft of making kanh, the traditional bell-metal utensils of Assam, was passed down only from father to son.
A rule that no longer worked
Her father, Haren Das, has worked metal for 41 years. Both his sons now work in Guwahati. "I had two choices," he says. "Let the craft end with me, or teach whoever wanted to learn."
Today eleven young women train in four family workshops. They have also brought something new: an Instagram page, custom engraving and a waiting list of buyers from Bengaluru and Pune.
The metal does not know who is holding the hammer.
Prices for a hand-hammered plate have risen by almost half in two years, enough that two of the brothers are thinking about coming home.
