The AYASA brass storage jar was one the first products we ever designed. It is made out of brass on a traditional spinning machine. The lid is hand-turned out of Sheesham, an indigenous hardwood from northern India that is sustainably sourced. This brass jar is perfect for storing loose-leaf tea or coffee and is food-safe, whist being airtight. It comes in two sizes. The copper and brass will naturally develop a beautiful patina* over time. We recommend stacking it to create an interesting kitchen display.

* This process can be reversed naturally with the help of a slice of lemon and some salt. Cut a lemon in half, add salt to the cut side and rub the item gently.

Once we had designed these jars, we struggled to find a craftsperson capable of doing the metal spinning by hand. Traditional methods aren’t being practiced widely anymore and many machines are now CNC-operated. We searched extensively and eventually found Venkatesh Chinappa, a man with over 25 years’ experience spinning metal on a manual machine.

Venkatesh now makes all of Tiipoi’s brass, copper and aluminium spun products in our Bangalore workshop and works closely with an engineer who reads the drawings. Though metal spinning is thought of as an industrial manufacturing process because a machine is involved, it is in reality a highly-specialized manual process that is akin to any skilled handcraft. You can see a video of him making a jar here.

We also have a copper and coloured version of this storage jar.