Ayasa Pourer

Our AYASA drip-free milk pourer is inspired by the extended 90-degree rim or lip found on Indian stainless steel kitchenware. It is this lip feature that effectively makes it ‘drip-free’. This drip-free milk pourer is spun out of copper or brass and lined with tin to make it food-safe. The copper and brass will naturally develop a rich dark patina* over time. This pourer is best used for cold milk with tea or coffee. Also use it for oils, salad dressing or to pour water into your vases.

* 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 pourers, 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. Once we spun the copper, we had to then find a craftsperson who could do the ‘tinning’ on the inside. This is done by applying a layer of molten tin using a combination of hand-tools.

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-specialised manual process that is akin to any skilled handcraft. You can see a video of him making a jar here.

We also have a coloured version of this pourer, and some jars made using the same process.