“Every night she whispers a bed-time story”
by Tissa Hewavitarana
Hand-made objects have a special
charm and attraction of their own. Right down the ages, in Sri Lanka,
humble folk living close to nature have been turning out objects of
utility and aesthetic delights, using indigenous materials. If one goes
down South from Hikkaduwa up to Devundara (Matara District) visiting
villagers, you can watch many-village girls involved in making beautiful
hand made craft. It is in one of these families I was born.
 My family is engaged in the handicraft industry for many years. My
father joined hands with one of my relatives and she became the
co-partner of our business. From the beginning I was not sent to a
school. I was absorbed to our family business from my childhood days.
This new partner of our business a young buxom lady bubbling with
enthusiasm, vigour and strength, ventured in to the soft toys business.
Today she operates a successful enterprise exhibiting her inborn talents
in this soft skilled industry.
I am a product of 100 percent cotton Sri Lankan hand-woven fabrics.
There are about twenty girls working in our work place. I am subject to
various changes and modifications up to the finished product.
The work includes layingout the fabrics, cutting, sewing, filling
with stuffed cotton wool into my body. The hand work involves fixing of
buttons, eyes, and facial treatment giving a texture of various colours
according to the product. Finally the machine work is a minor part of
the process. At last I have reached adolescence and blossomed into a
lovely doll.
Many similar items are produced in our workshop, quality is a must
and we are popular in the market due to our stringent standards. We come
out with a wide range of toys - from the traditional Sri Lankan dolls,
various birds, animals, aborigines of Australia to reindeer and even
Eskimos of Alaska. Our speciality is the use of hand-woven fabrics and
they are made from hand-dyed yarn and most of the time colours vary from
the original. This enables to match the fabric for each toy. This gives
it thousands of different patterns and that is the uniqueness of the
hand toy.
 The customer always looks out for a unique and genuine item of
design. The success is the creativity and not copying from others. I
come across various types in many colourful designs and packed off in
lorry loads to shopping centres in Colombo and for export. We export our
products to the U.K. the Netherlands and Japan. The most popular is the
doll among children of three to fourteen years.
I once came to know a girl of fourteen years who loved me so much,
took care of me treated me as her own sister.
Every night she goes to sleep with me, whispering a bed-time story
and sings a lullaby until I get up the following morning for a fresh
day.
Turning out items of our nature (toys) is a medicine for the soul and
it gives immense satisfaction to see an item taking shape with your
skill.
It is a respectable livelihood and wish to see this trade prosper
with time, hard work with its quality products win numerous customers
locally and internationally. |
