Toy animals

In Puri, and to some extent Raghurajpur, there exists a tradition of making wonderful lightweight figures, also known as gobar kandhayi, or toys made from cow dung. Unlike the paper mache technique, the toys are created by covering a clay model of the envisaged toy with layers of old paper moistened with water and gum. A string beneath these layers along the central horizontal axis of the model is the jerked out, effectively causing the paper model to be cut in half. The inner clay is removed and the hollow paper image put back together with the help of gum and cow dung. the surface is then smoothened and painted, initially in base white, upon which the bright colors of facial and other details added. Often such toy animals, with movable heads, are also made in very large sizes.