Modern brass products take many shapes and forms, and may be produced using a number of different techniques. These objects may be of differing colors, between red and yellow, but details, particularly when brass is used for depiction, may have a number of different colors.

Copper (bronze or the brass) can be colored by heating, oxidizing or by using glass or oil colors, but the best technique of coloring copper is inlaying, which is the most expensive (compared with the other techniques). With this technique, the colors are limited. Red copper thread is used to achieve a red-brownish color, silver thread is used for white-silver, and oxidized copper thread is used for black. This technique of coloring is usually used for Islamic designs, which explains why such work is generally limited to four colors (yellow, silver, black and brownish red).

The heating technique is not used often in Egyptian products because it is hard to use many colors in the same piece.

The oxidizing method is the most common technique of coloring brass or copper, especially in pictures produced on plates, though some oil or glass colors may also be used if more colors are needed. The basic chemicals used in the oxidizing process includes cupric nitrate, cobalt nitrate and potash sulfurated (also known as liver of sulfur) copper sulfate, and potassium sulfide in crystal and powder form. These are the basic chemicals used mostly by artists, sculptors and architects for coloring of copper, brass and bronze.

However, the problem with the oxidizing technique is that the colors are not as long lasting as those products produced using the inlaying technique. Particularly if an inlaid object does not use black, it can be polished and cleaned repeatedly without losing any of its shiny colors, while the oxidized item looses the colors over time and cannot be polished. However, the inlaid technique requires considerably longer to design and inlay the colors, so it is also more expensive.

By closely examining an object, one can determine which technique is has been employed. The inlaid technique looks very shiny, very clean and very well finished, but some of the oxidized objects one can see the edges of the colors have run onto each other or out of its lines. Also, items that have been in a shop for some time may have oxidized and already some of the colors may have faded.

The manner of working designs into a brass object also varies. Some of the factories do the hammering by hand while others do it by compressing (embossing) machines. The machine work will not be deep in the object, such as a plate, but will create smooth, clear lines. The hand hammered items will have deeper lines that are not as smooth.

The first step for making the plates is getting the brass sheets then cutting them as the design needs. Brass sheets come in various sizes and some factories prefer to get the larger sheets and cut them by machine to suit their design needs. The designs are drawn on the sheets of brass using special tools and other tools are used to shape the brass.