Educational Trip to Channapatna – Toy Factory 2018 from ICAT, Chennai

The students of Interior Design of ICAT Design and Media College, chennai had a good experience visiting an eminent toy factory at Channapatna. The city is famous for its wooden toys and lacquer ware. Channapatna is also called the ‘Town of Toys’ (‘goMbegaLa nagara’). The toys are manufactured here in traditional and advanced small-scale industries.

The 5-day trip started 8 March, 2018, with an aim to understand the designing aspects and design an artefact as a part of the Principles of Design module.

On the first day, the students were taken to ‘Bharat Arts and Crafts’, one of the most trusted factories in Channapatna. The owner of the factory, Mr. Suhyl guided the students through sample toys kept on display, which were a visual treat with quirky colours. Then, the students were taken inside the toy factory and demonstrations were given by all the artisans.

The students then interacted with the artisans and explained them their own designs, which they had kept ready already, and started giving shape to their designs. The execution of the designs extended for the next two days. After successful completion of the artefacts, everyone visited the famous Mysore palace which was an exquisite masterpiece of architecture.

As a final stroke of the trip, the students went to the Somnath temple, which had a lot of details and was a master stroke of Traditional Indian architecture. They also went to Thalakad, where the river Cauveri flows and had some good photography sessions.

The five-day trip was good enough to give the students an exposure towards the traditional Indian art of toy making and the monuments, which were an amalgamation of various styles.