Get to Know These Channapatna Artisans

Noor Salma of Channapatna was one of the first few women of the town to be attracted to operating an electrical lathe to fashion wooden articles. She was taught by her father-in-law, who belonged to an unusually progressive household, where only men performed such arduous work.

A dedicated woodcraft artisan, Noor Salma explores new designs, planning them first with drawings.

Today, she has her own unit and leads over 50 workers to whom she gives her designs. She also handles the production and travels with her products to bazaars and exhibitions to different parts of India.

Noor Salma is willing to travel to any destination with her not-so-light electrical lathe to demonstrate how their woodwork is done. A highly skilled artisan, she operates the electrical lathe with ease and concentration.

Sadeq Padua works on machines that cut smaller sized wooden shapes from a larger wooden block. These are made according to required quantities against orders received by the head of the unit.

He is covered in tiny chips of saw dust by the end of a working day, but is proud he is part of a process that keeps their heritage alive.

Shahed Padua applies finishing touches to a decorative knob that will go at the end of a curtain rod or even become the lid of a container.

Smoothening the surface of the wood perfectly is an important part of maintaining the quality of Channapatna craft for sales outside their town.

Shahed Padua remains shirtless as he works, like many others who cannot have fans and cooling systems in work areas that are full of saw dust. He displays a simple two- dimensional key chain, produced as an inexpensive souvenir for the local market.

Adept at working the hand lathe, Sheila prepares to clasp a portion of it with her toes before she starts working the ‘bow’ to make wooden beads.

Many workers in the craft industry of Channapatna are women. Some work with a non-electrical lathe to craft rounded objects like beads. Mubbe Nano strings the lac coloured beads into a necklace when they are ready.

A younger generation of wooden toy artisans from Chennapatna, like Chikkamalaya, make their workplaces cheerful by cutting out images from magazines and pasting them on the walls. He is adept at sandpapering. Here he ensures there will be a smooth surface on a candle stand.

Temraj manipulates the shape and size of a small rounded edge of a wooden piece, which will become the handle for a knob of some kind. He uses different sized instruments for this purpose.

Manjunat scrapes the interior portion of a wooden cookie jar by holding a sharp blade against the inner surface. He ignores the specks of wooden dust and even larger chips that fly around him.

Malaya and Chikkamalaya share the same work space. They are making tops which are a very popular small item sold in bazaars and in the local market. They both share the same name and are probably differentiated by the addition of ‘chikka’ meaning small, to the younger man’s name.

Ramo and his colleague share a happy workspace in Channapatna in the company of film actors and other Rambo-like figures on the walls.

Ram Krishna is a veteran woodworker in a toy workshop in Channapatna. He likes to look smart in his cap and printed shirt, unlike his shirtless colleagues. He works confidently on grazing away the rough edges of a wooden piece.

Syed Yaheya is an elder in the toy business who facilitates the stocking and distribution of raw pieces and collects the lacquered ones for onward despatch. His stock consists mainly of traditional pieces which are more folksy in style and decorative on their surface.

Read more about the toy making tradition of Channapatna here:

- Lathe-turned and Lacquered toys of Channapatna
- A chain of artisans create a toy