Rural Track

An artist making wooden bangles at the factory

This is neither a village nor a city; it is a town in the Bangalore Rural District. The town is also known as the “City of Wooden toys”, it is Channapatna which is 60kms away from Bangalore. This town nurtures an art form belonging to the age of Tipu Sultan. During the reign of Tipu Sultan artisans from Persia were invited to train the local artists in the making of wooden toys.

The exploration started with my visit to a factory at Tattekere. The artists described the process of manufacturing the toys.

1. Wood is bought from the forest department based on the weight.
2. The types of wood used to make these articles are cedar, rubber wood, ivory wood, sycamore, pine, teak, red wood and so on.
3. Then the wood is seasoned. (Dried and treated in a natural way)
4. The wood is churned to arrive at the desired shape.
5. Further design enhancements are made.
6. Colour is added to it by using lacquer. The widely used colours are green, red, black, brown, orange, yellow, violet and cream.

The government has provided a factory space and some machinery to the artists involved in this craft. The craftsmen pay a meager amount Rs.90 per month.

Following that I met the artisans at their homes. It was a sad scene to see the gutter passing by few houses. At the same it was shocking to meet a few rich artisans who were able market their goods confidently and create presence even in the export markets. Every artisan family gave me a warm welcome and was curious to show their creations. Each artist had his own domain expertise in manufacturing the wooden articles. Few made toys which were specific for the children to develop their neuron abilities, few had interesting accessories for young people, few catered for the home care segment and so on.

On the whole  it was a wonderful experience!!!

This entry was posted on Monday, August 24th, 2009 at 7:13 am and is filed under Rural Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.