The AYASA Coloured storage jars are made out of food-grade aluminium. These jars are hand spun from aluminium sheets and then powder-coated. In India aluminium is used widely for storage but also for cooking. These coloured storage jars are hard-wearing, low-maintenance jars are perfect for the kitchen and keep things air-tight. They come in two sizes with a wooden lid, and are made from sustainably-sourced Sheesham or Beech wood. 

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 brass version of this storage jar.