Guides to commissioning public art
There is very little honest, practical writing available in India about how public art actually gets specified, priced, made and maintained. These guides are our attempt to fix that — written from workshop experience, for the people who have to make the decisions.
FRP vs GRC vs Cement: Choosing a Material for Outdoor Sculpture in India
For most outdoor sculpture in India the choice comes down to three materials. Use FRP when weight is the constraint and you want a metallic or painted finish. Use GRC when the piece must read as stone and survive decades of direct weather. Use carved cement when the relief is on a permanent wall and should become part of it. Everything else follows from those three cases.
GuideWhat Drives the Cost of a Custom Statue in India
Statue pricing is driven by six things: height, material, finish complexity, whether a specific likeness is required, structural engineering, and installation. Height dominates, but not linearly — cost rises faster than size, because a figure twice as tall is roughly eight times the volume and needs disproportionately more structure beneath it.
GuideHow to Commission a Public Sculpture: A Step-by-Step Guide
Commissioning public art runs through eight stages: brief, site assessment, concept, approval of a scale model, fabrication, finishing, installation and handover. The stage that decides everything is approval of the maquette — changes are inexpensive before full-size work begins and very expensive afterwards.
GuideMaintaining Outdoor Sculpture in Indian Conditions
Outdoor sculpture in India faces intense UV, monsoon saturation, dust and pollution. Almost all of it is manageable with two habits: wash the piece two or three times a year with plain water and a soft brush, and re-coat the protective finish every five to seven years. Neglect of the coating, not the material, is what ages public art.
GuideScrap Metal Sculpture for Municipal Parks: A Guide for Urban Local Bodies
Scrap sculpture is unusually well suited to municipal budgets: material cost is negligible because the material is waste, and the spend goes almost entirely into skill. The result works simultaneously as public art, as a visible sustainability statement, and as a destination that generates footfall and photographs.
GuideChoosing a 3D Wall Mural for a Hotel or Restaurant
A relief mural in a hospitality interior succeeds or fails on three decisions made before fabrication: whether the wall can take the load, whether the lighting rakes across the surface, and whether the scale suits the distance guests actually view it from. Get those right and the material choice is comparatively simple.
Shorter questions are answered on the FAQ page. If you want to know who is writing this and why, the about page covers the studio and its 27 years of work.
Still have a question?
If something is not covered here, ask us. We would rather answer a material or process question early than have it become a problem later.