The AYASA copper storage jar was one of the first products we ever designed! It is made out of copper on a traditional spinning machine. The lid is hand-turned out of Sheesham, an indigenous hardwood from northern India that is sustainably-sourced. This copper jar is perfect for storing loose-leaf tea or coffee and is food-safe whist being airtight. It comes in two sizes. The copper jar 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  included the 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 factory 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.

Click here to see how we make our jars. We also do a coloured version that you can check out here.