Artisans and Beauty of Channapatna Toys

Welcome to the fascinated world of toys at Channapattana, a small town in Bangalore Rural district. Channapatna toys are very popular form of toys globally. Channapatna is just an hour's drive from Bangalore, on the way to Mysore. This town is also referred as Toy Town (Gombegala Ooru in local language). Channapatna Taluk has Artisan Training Institute (A.T.I) which was established 94 years ago.

What is the origin of these toys? Tippu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore, the present Karnataka State, was a great admirer of wooden toys. He invited artisans from Persia to train the local artisans in the making of wooden toys. Rosewood and sandalwood were also occasionally used in making the toys, but the main wood used was ivory woods for almost two centuries. They also use teak, pine, rubber and cedar woods.

The Karnataka Handicrafts Development Corporation does their part by providing the artisans the necessary training and teaching them about the changing trends. The Government of Karnataka has also provided help by constructing a Lacquerware Craft Complex, which has a manufacturing centre with 32 turning lathe machines, at Channapatna

These beautiful toys come in almost 400 varieties such as bangles, ear rings, wooden cars, dinosaurs, crocodiles, elephant, aircraft, trains, snails, watches, wall clocks, dolls, rattles and whatever else that you can think of. They are available for sale at Cauvery Emporium at M.G. Road, Jayanagar and Majestic branches.The artisans also make education toys to meet the needs of the new generation kids.

The tourists and visitors to this garden city (Bangalore) visit Cauvery Emporium on M.G. Road, and during their visit to Mysore from Bangalore they can also easily shop at Channapatna on the way.

The artisans make their own toys. In addition, they do take orders to make custom made toys for the customers, as per their requirement.

Many people work on motorized lathes, but there are a few still using manual hand-driven lathes to make small parts of these toys. For many artisans their entire family is involved in making these toys.

You may wonder what is so special about Channapatna toys. The main point is quality. These toys are ecofriendly which makes these toys different from other toys. They are made from vegetable color dyes, which are non toxic and are put on display after being polished.

Another interesting fact is that the customers can even witness of the making of these toys by the artisans, right in front of their eyes. In addition, these toys are simple and bright in color, which attracts many kids.