The method of casting followed for Nettur petti is die casting becos of the repeated use of motifs and patterns. The motifs of brass fittings are also inspired from the ancient architecture of North Kerala. The process starts from the making of die which is casted in iron and the artisan is having a set of dies which is around 50 – 60 years old. There are sets of dies according to the size of the boxes. Once the size of the design is decided accordingly the mooshari selects the die and then starts with the process of melting brass in a vessel called “Kurichipul or musha”. Once the casting is done the casted artifacts are detached from the die once it is cool enough to handle. Then the artifacts are kept in water for sometime later on outside. Then the artifacts are polished in buffing machine as well as the sides are filed by using a filer. In olden days different types of sand papers were used for buffing. Nowadays another method used for making brass motifs are cutting the brass sheets, the main reason for using this method is the lack of skilled metal casting labors.
The parts of the brass casted pieces have different names. Moolakkettu is the corner piece used for supporting the side corners. Thavala Kettu is for supporting the base, Thangu kettu is used for supporting the sides of box. Pulikal is literally means tiger legs used as base support. Pidi is handle which is fixed on the top of the roof.
