The story

Jaisalmer, in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan, India, is known as the golden city after its yellow sandstone architecture. The abundance of this local stone makes it the natural choice of material for construction and also finer hand crafts. 

The famous yellow sandstone of Jaisalmer is found in areas surrounding the city. It comes from mines like Jethwai, Cipla and Moolsagar. Heavy machinery is required to extract and break the rock. Large blocks of it are trucked to factories in the industrial area of town, where they are further cut into smaller pieces. 

In contrast to the large-scale and heavy processes involved in cutting, the stone will be carved using small hand-held tools, primarily a hammer and chisels of different widths.