Shivam Murti Bhandar

We are based in Wadhwan, specifically on Dholi Pole Road. It’s an older part of town and the roads are kind of bumpy. Shivam Murti Bhandar has been operating out of this spot for a good while. Most of what we do involves working with stone and making figures. It’s a very physical job. My back usually aches by the time I head home at night. The air inside the workshop is always thick with that fine marble powder. You can see it floating in the sunlight that comes through the door. We don’t have any fancy showrooms here. You just walk in and see the pieces we are currently working on sitting on the floor or on old wooden crates. Sometimes we have a lot of work and other times it’s a bit slower, which is just how it goes. The neighbors are mostly other workshops and small shops, so it’s always got that sound of hammers and chisels going on. Wadhwan isn't a huge place, so we know most of the people who walk past our door every morning. We just focus on getting the shapes right and making sure the stone doesn't crack while we are carving it. It takes a lot of patience and sometimes things go wrong, but we just start again on a new piece. It’s hard work, but we’ve been doing it for so long now that it’s just what we do.