Hyderabadi Lacker Bangels

In the middle of Sultan Pura at house 22-1-865, we keep the tradition of making these bangles alive. It is a very slow process that happens in our small workspace here in Hyderabad. We use heat to soften the lacquer so we can shape it around the circular frames. It’s hot work, and you can always smell the resin melting over the small fires. We sit on mats on the floor for hours, carefully pressing tiny stones and bits of glass into the soft material before it hardens. My fingers are often a bit calloused from the heat and the tools we use to smooth out the edges. We have boxes and boxes of different colored powders and stones tucked into every corner of the room. This isn't a factory; it’s just us working with our hands to make something that looks nice. Every set of bangles comes out a little bit different because we don't use machines to do the patterns. People come to this part of the city specifically looking for this kind of work. Sometimes a customer will bring a piece of a dress and ask us to match the colors exactly, which takes a bit of mixing and testing. It’s a lot of squinting under the lights to get the details right. We’ve been doing this for a long time, passing the skills down through the family. It’s just what we do every day in this little corner of Sultan Pura.