Five centuries of Bidriware, from Bidar to your shelf.
hunar · virasat · nafasat
Kalam Silver brings handcrafted Bidriware — the centuries-old zinc-and-silver inlay art of Bidar, Karnataka — to collectors. Every piece is cast, engraved and inlaid entirely by hand, then blackened using a technique found nowhere else in the world.
A preview of the Bidriware being prepared, ahead of the first opening.
Bulbous forms cast in the traditional Bidar shape, hand-inlaid start to finish.
Flat and lidded surfaces where the silver pattern gets room to spread.
Cufflinks, bangles and small pieces carrying the same inlay in miniature.
Bowls and ornaments finished for the shelf, not the drawer.
What each room of the house actually holds, beyond the preview.
Every Bidri vase starts as a rough cast in a zinc-copper alloy, roughly sixteen parts zinc to one part copper, shaped by hand long before a single line of silver is drawn.
The bulbous body and narrow neck follow proportions used in Bidar for generations — the same silhouette collectors have sought out since the Bahmani era.
Flat lids and tray surfaces let the engraver work larger, more elaborate motifs than a curved vase allows — many drawn from the geometry of Bidar Fort itself.
Lidded boxes are hand-fitted after the inlay is finished, so the fit is checked against the exact piece it belongs to, not a standard mould.
Cufflinks, bangles and pendants go through the same eight-stage process as a full-sized vase — cast, engraved and inlaid at a scale that fits in your palm.
It's the same craft, carried close, rather than a simplified version of it.
Bowls, small ornaments and display pieces built for daily life — meant to sit out and be seen, not wrapped up and saved for a special day.
Traditional pattern work, scaled and finished to sit comfortably in a modern room.
Eight stages, all by hand, following a process largely unchanged since the Bahmani era.
The zinc-copper alloy is cast into a mould, taking the rough shape of the piece.
The casting is filed by hand until the surface is even and ready to work.
The pattern is hand-engraved into the metal with fine chisels.
Pure silver wire is hammered by hand into the engraved grooves.
The surface is filed again so the silver inlay sits perfectly flush.
The piece is buffed to an even, bright finish before oxidising.
A paste made from soil found only near Bidar Fort blackens the alloy — and leaves the silver untouched.
Oil is worked into the surface to deepen the black and protect the piece.
What makes a piece genuinely Bidriware, in the craft's own terms.
har tukda apni kahani kehta hai
Kalam Silver is preparing its first collection of handcrafted Bidriware. Reach out on WhatsApp to reserve a piece or ask about a custom order.