ETIKOPPAKA TOY CRAFT - ART AND CULTURE
News: Padma
award is an honour for the Etikoppaka toy craft, says C.V. Raju
What's in the news?
● The
Union Government choosing to confer Padma Shri on him in the art category is an
honour to the Etikoppaka wooden toy craft, and it will go a long way in
promoting the art, says C.V. Raju.
Etikoppaka toy craft:
● It
is a traditional method of making wooden
toys using non-toxic paints and natural dyes.
● The
art of making traditional wooden Etikoppaka toys is more than 400 years old and
it has been traditionally handed over to them by their ancestors through
generations.
● Toys
are made in Etikoppaka village on the banks of Varaha River in Visakhapatnam
district of Andhra Pradesh.
● The
art of toy making is also known as Turned
wood Lacquer craft.
● Etikoppaka
Toys have obtained their Geographical
Indication (GI) tag in Andhra Pradesh.
Features:
● The
toys are unique in shape and form. They are made of wood and painted with
natural dyes.
● The
toys are made with lacquer colour because of the application of lacquer coating
and are also called lacquer toys.
● The
wood used is from ‘Ankudi Karra’ (Wrightia tinctoria) tree that is
soft in nature.
● The
natural dyes are prepared from seeds, lacquer, bark, roots and leaves.
● These
dynes are unique as they do not have heavy metal or toxic content in them.
Challenges:
● Competition
from plastic toys and flooding of Chinese
products.
● The
dumping of identical cheap Chinese wooden toys.
● Scarcity
of raw materials such as wood due to shrinking forests.