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Our Craft

The hand behind the piece

Tribe Aura works with artisans who learned their craft from the people before them. Every piece we sell is made by one of them, by hand, using the techniques that tradition actually calls for — not an approximation of it.

From material to piece

How it is made

  1. 01

    Sourcing the material

    Raw silk from Maheshwar, cotton spun in West Bengal, scrap brass collected and re-melted for Dokra casting. Material is chosen for how it behaves in the hand, not for what it costs.

  2. 02

    Preparing by hand

    Yarn is dyed and sun-dried before it ever reaches a loom. For Dokra, a clay core is shaped and wrapped in fine beeswax threads — the pattern is drawn once, in wax, and cannot be corrected later.

  3. 03

    Making

    A Maheshwari saree takes three to five days on a pit loom. A Dokra piece is cast in a single pour of molten brass, and the mould is broken to release it — which is why no two are ever identical.

  4. 04

    Finishing and checking

    Edges are hand-finished, brass is filed and polished, and every piece is checked before it is packed. Small irregularities are left alone — they are the record of how the object was made.

The traditions

What we work with

  • Dokra

    West Bengal & Odisha

    A lost-wax casting method roughly four thousand years old. The wax model is melted out and replaced by molten brass in one pour, so the mould can only be used once.

    See 6 pieces

  • Maheshwari & Katan silk

    Madhya Pradesh

    Woven on pit looms on the banks of the Narmada. The weave is light enough to fold into a palm, with the fine zari border the region is known for.

    See 5 pieces

  • Khadi & mul cotton

    West Bengal

    Hand-spun and hand-woven cotton, breathable enough for an Australian summer. Natural dyes settle differently in every batch.

    See 4 pieces

  • Carved wood

    Rajasthan & Uttar Pradesh

    Sheesham and mango wood worked with hand tools, finished with food-safe oil rather than lacquer so the grain stays visible.

    See 3 pieces
A mould that can only be used once makes a thing that can only exist once.

On Dokra casting

How we work

What we commit to

  • Named craft, named technique

    Every listing says what it is and how it was made. If we cannot name the technique, we do not stock the piece.

  • Paid properly

    Artisans are paid per piece at a rate agreed before work starts, not against a quota.

  • Small runs

    We buy in the quantities a workshop can comfortably make. That is why a run is often under ten pieces.

See the work

Every piece in the collection carries the name of its craft and the technique used to make it.

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