Mysuru: Creating handmade crafts and commodities requires skills, patience and practice. One such man happens to be sitting at the ongoing Khadi and Gramodyog Utsav at the J.K. Grounds in Mysuru, as he continuously prepares craft items out of bamboo and cane and sells it to his customers.

With a small stall set up at the Utsav, he displays his skills as he scrapes and cuts the canes and bamboos to eventually make it a well-designed product.

Chiksiddaiah, hailing from Mamballi, Yelandur taluk, Chamarajanagar district, is an expert in making baskets and lamps out of bamboos. At his stall, he has prepared key chains, pen stands, lamp shades, baskets, flower vase, letter-box, bangles, hair clip, interior decoration items, fruit bowl, boats, trays, plates, earrings, necklace, etc. all made out of either bamboo or cane. The stripes of canes are interlocked and give a beautiful end product.

He uses specific tools, various knives, and a drilling machine to prepare the desired products out of bamboos. He patiently keeps scraping the cane and polishing it and gives it a shape to get the desired finished product.

He says, “I use a small flame burner also; people love that dark patch of burnt colour on the cane and bamboo that acts as a design and people tend to buy that often. So I give it a tinge of dark patch after I finish the product.”

Chiksiddaiah also conducts training camps and classes for those who are keen to learn this art of making items from bamboos and canes. His journey has been a bumpy ride. Though his family followed their traditional occupation of making baskets from bamboos, Chiksiddaiah used to work as an employee in the sugar factory at Kunthur, Kollegal. But the factory was shut down due to some reasons, and Chiksiddaiah had the fear of survival staring in his eyes. It was then that he resorted towards making things out of  bamboos. Since then, he has been able to make an average earning for himself and his family.

He credited two people who changed his life. He says, “I was lacking motivation in my life, but A.C. Lakshman, former Secretary to Government of Karnataka and Dr. K.H. Vinaya Kumar, Chief Conservator of Forests, Bengaluru, saw the potential in me and encouraged me to go ahead in life by practicing my skills in making things out of bamboos; and what I’m today is all because of their words and constant motivation.”

The Utsav at J.K. Grounds, open between 10.30 am – 8.30 pm, will conclude on Dec.4.