Wood (Turning and Lacquer Ware)

Wood turning involves the use of lathe on which a rapidly rotating piece of wood is shaped with a chisel to create cylinders spheres or cones. The beauty of this craft lies in painting the smooth wooden shapes. Usually, the turned piece is coated with coloured lacquer. Today, lacquer ware Production has diversified in response to changing markets. It now includes jewellery, decorative pieces, household utility articles and educational articles such as skipping rope handles, chess sets, pen holders, paper weights and rubber stamp holders. The softwood lacquer ware toy business is on verge of closure due to government apathy, stringent export norms and rising input costs. The European Union, Australia and the US demand for certifications and eco-friendly compliance markings on this craft. Main clusters: Etikoppaka in Andhra Pradesh is the hometown of lacquer ware. Other important centres are Ernakulam, Chennapatna, Chitrakoot, Davanagere, Medak, Sankheda, and Varanasi Artisans involved: The Etikoppaka Mutually-Aided Cooperative Society comprises 165 artisans63. Raw material used: The industry is totally dependent on forests for the primary raw Materials. These forest-based products are the wood of the hale tree (or other species like teak, oak, ebony, redwood, rosewood, red cedar, pine, etc.), lac produced by the insect Technadria lacca and the leaves of the talegiri (Pandanus odoratissimus). Synthetic materials used are paints and pigments. Lithophone (compound of barium sulphate and zinc Sulphide) is used to give opaqueness to the lac.