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A day at channapatna

Hale wood (Wrightia Tinctoria) is best suited for turning & lac application. The wood comes from non-forest & non-agricultural land. Where the trees are cut such that it grows back. The wood isn't chemically treated hence saw dust powders proven non-hazardous to the workers. To season the wood all the wood gets stacked up in wood room. The wood gets stacked according to the sizes. Once seasoned, it gets sanded, cut into small blocks which can be mounted on the lathe for toy making.

Lac is another key component of this process. Lac is a non-toxic natural resin. Laccifer lacca insects eat the sap of the tree on which they live. The insect lay eggs on the secretion & post egg hatching people peel off the secretion from the bark of the tree. It gets cleaned, further purified into seed lac, button lac, lac flakes & shellac. Seed lack which is in circular shapes is used here.

1st magic moment for me

Lac must be melted over charcoal fire as excessive heat can burn! It is a time-consuming process. Based on the toy & it's sizes lac quantity gets decided. While melting natural colours are added like turmeric, kanchi kumkum, indigo, catechu, alizarin (manjishta), jatropha (ratanjyoth) etc. Coloured lack is kneaded up into long strips & cut into small lac sticks.


Screwpine (Tale gari) leaf is another key component. The leaf used to polish the surface to give the toy a glossy finish. The leaf needs to be dried before it can be used in the process.

2nd magic moment for me

Seasoned wood cut into small blocks is mounted onto a lathe. The motor driven lathe will ensure that wood continuously spins. Various tools are used to shape the toy based on designed dimensions. Using sandpapers wood surfaces gets smoothen & there-after lac is pressed against the wood. Spinning & frictional heat helps the lac to melt & absorb onto the wood. Though vivid colors are absorbed into the wood, the wood surface still is rough & un-finished.

3rd magic moment for me

Once the coloured lac is evenly spread on to the wood. Dry screwpine leaf is used to polish the surface by pressing the leaf against the spinning wood. Again,spinning & friction helps the leaf to give a glossy polish to the wood.