Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Etikoppaka Toy

Mains level: NA

etikoppaka

The Union conferred Padma Shri to Mr. Raju in the art category as an honour to the Etikoppaka wooden toy craft.

Etikoppaka Toys

Etikoppaka is a small village on the banks of Varaha River at a distance of 64 Kms away from the Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh.
The name Etikoppaka is synonymous with beautiful wooden artifacts and lacquer colours.
The toys are made with lacquer color and are traditionally known as Etikoppaka toys or Etikoppaka Bommalu.
The village is very famous for its toys made of wood. The toys are also called as lacquer toys because of application of lacquer coating.
Etikoppaka Toys have obtained their GI tag under the Handicrafts category in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

How are they made?

The toys are made out of wood and are coloured with natural dyes derived from seeds, lacquer, bark, roots and leaves.
The wood used to make the toys is soft in nature and the art of toy making is also known as Turned wood Lacquer craft.
While making the Etikoppaka toys, lac, a colourless resinous secretion of numerous insects, is used.
The already prepared vegetable dyes are further mixed to the lac, during the process of oxidation.
After this process, the end product obtained is rich and colored lacquer.
The lac dye is used for decorating the Etikoppaka toys, which are exported all over the world.