How we make them
Six steps, and only
one of them is a machine
A dashboard idol looks like a small thing. Getting one to survive a year of engine vibration, summer heat on a parked windscreen and a courier who does not read “fragile” takes more steps than most people expect.
The sculpt
One sculptor builds the form in clay at full size — the pose, the proportions, the fall of the cloth. This happens once per design and takes between one and three weeks. Everything after this is a copy of that day's work.
Clay · one sculptor
The mould
A silicone mould is taken off the clay original. Silicone picks up detail down to a fingernail, but it wears: after roughly 120 pulls the edges soften and we cut a new one rather than let the detail slide.
Silicone · ~120 pulls
The cast
Resin is poured, degassed to pull the air bubbles out, and left to cure. The degassing is the step people skip — without it you get pinholes that only show up after painting, and then the whole piece is wasted.
Poured · degassed · cured
The base
A steel weight is set into the base and the bottom is faced flat and felt-lined. This is why our dashboard pieces do not slide on a turn, and it is most of the reason they feel heavier than they look.
Steel weight · felt-lined
The paint
Base coat, then the detail: eyes, jewellery, the border of a saree, the feather. Done by hand with a brush, which is why two pieces of the same idol are never exactly the same. A hand-painted Durga takes an artisan most of a day.
By hand · 2–8 hours
The pack
Foam cradle cut to the shape of the piece, then a second box around it. A printed card goes in explaining which direction the idol should face.
Foam cradle · double box
What they are made of
Resin for the car.
Metal for the mandir.
These are two different jobs. A dashboard piece has to be light enough that it is not a hazard in a hard brake, and it has to hold colour through a summer parked in the sun — that is resin, hand-painted. A mandir piece will be bathed, touched and kept for decades, and it should gain something as it ages — that is brass and panchdhatu. We do not pretend one can do the other’s job.
Polyresin
Light, takes fine detail, holds hand paint. Our dashboard pieces.
Brass
Copper + zinc. Heavy, bright, forgiving. The everyday mandir metal.
Panchdhatu
Five metals, as the Shilpa Shastras prescribe. For daily puja.
Marble dust
Compressed stone powder. Looks like stone at a third the weight.
Looking after your idol
Different materials, different rules
Hand-painted resin
A dry cloth is all it needs. Never water, never polish — both lift hand paint. Keep it out of hours of direct sun; the pigment fades before the resin does.
Antique gold finish
Dry cloth. Do not use brass polish on it — the antique finish is a surface treatment, and polish takes it straight off.
Brass
Dry cotton cloth weekly. Brass polish twice a year, not more — polish removes a little metal every time you use it.
Panchdhatu
It will darken. That is correct and traditionally auspicious. If you want it bright again, rub with tamarind paste, rinse and dry fully.
Marble dust
Porous — keep away from oil, water and direct sun. Dust with a soft dry brush rather than a cloth.