Our craft

A sawmill, and what came after

AARHA is Raja and Pankhuri. Before us, a father, forty years, and a yard that smelled of fresh-cut wood.

Saada Takai sheesham wood thali plate with raised rim, view 3

AARHA began in a sawmill.

Raja's father ran one for the better part of forty years. The smell of fresh-cut wood in the yard, the sound of a blade finding the grain, the same men turning up every morning before the light did. When his health made it hard to keep going, the machines went quiet, and a trade that had fed a family for generations was suddenly ours to either lose or carry.

We are Raja and Pankhuri. We both work in tech. AARHA is what we do with the rest of our hours: solid sheesham and mango, turned and carved by artisans in Saharanpur who learned this the way it has always been learned, made into pieces for the way people actually live now. A plate you use on a Tuesday. A spice box that stays out on the counter. A tray that carries the morning coffee back to bed.

We keep it small on purpose. We choose the planks. We look at every piece before it is wrapped. We would rather make one good bowl than a hundred passable ones.

Nothing here is veneered, and nothing pretends to be older than it is. What it is, is honest work: his, and now ours.

The first rule

Wood that has been seasoned properly forgives almost anything. Wood that was rushed forgives nothing.

From plank to plate

1

Seasoned, chosen by hand

Sheesham and mango planks dried for months so they won't warp on your table.

2

Turned, carved, sanded

Takai and nakashi patterns cut by hand, one piece at a time.

3

Finished with food-safe oil

Sealed by hand, then checked one piece at a time before it is wrapped.

The vocabulary

Four words worth knowing

Two woods and two ways of working them. Once you can tell them apart, the whole shelf reads differently.

Sheesham

Indian rosewood

Dense, dark and heavy in the hand. The grain runs in ribbons that shift colour as you turn the piece, and it takes a carving cleanly and keeps it.

Mango

The lighter wood

Paler and warmer-toned than sheesham, with a wilder, more open grain. Light enough to lift one-handed, which is why the incense holders are made from it.

Takai

Turning

The piece is shaped on a lathe while it spins. The fine rings you can feel across a Takai plate are the tool's path, not a pattern printed on afterwards.

Nakashi

Carving

Patterns cut into the surface by hand once the piece is turned. It is why no two Kashmir trays match, and why they take the longest to leave the workshop.