Watching a skilled craftsman hand carving elephants into solid hard wood is truly mesmerising. The well known Sheesham wood (also known as Indian Rosewood) polishes to a deep lustre and is perfect for emphasising such skilled craftsmanship on pieces of Indian fair trade furniture.
On their trip to India last month, Georgie and Alexandra visited the supplier that produces Myakka’s British designed furniture. One of the aims of the trip was to work through the samples of a brand new range of furniture based around the incredibly popular Myakka Elephant Cupboard.
“It’s really good to see the craftsman hand carving the elephant shapes”, commented Georgie. “As much as possible, Myakka’s furniture is produced using the latest German CAD machinery, which although fascinating, is not as engaging as the hands of a skilled craftsman! It’s great to be able to offer customers traditional Indian furniture along with more contemporary designs and in doing so, support age-old carving techniques within the Jodhpur community.”
As the images show each square is hand carved before being inserted into the cupboard door frame which is fabricated separately. The Sheesham wood doors are then fitted to the main unit before the entire wooden cupboard goes to the finishing department. The solid wood cupboards are then quality control checked before being carefully packed ready for shipping to the UK.
“Although the elephants are featured across the whole of each door of the cupboard it would be far too wasteful to carve each door from a solid piece of Sheesham wood. That is why each elephant is carved from smaller pieces of wood which are then assembled into the cupboard door frame. This has the added advantage of making the door more stable”, commented Georgie.
The new range of Myakka Elephant Furniture including a blanket box, bookcase and small cabinet is due to arrive in the UK in Spring of 2010.
To see a video of the craftsmen at work simply click below.
