Nirmal, a small town located in Adilabad District of Andhra Pradesh, is renowned for its wooden toys. These toys are themed around animals and birds, usually in the flying formation. They form an attractive showpiece for the living room.
Large sized toys are carved out of teak, while the smaller ones are made from a particular variety of wood called ‘punki.’ A coating of glue, derived from tamarind seeds, and white clay is applied on the surface before the coloring. The base color is black or natural mud. Gold is the dominant color used in these toys. Gold color is prepared by boiling the extract of two particular varieties of plants in linseed oil. Toys meant for less ornamental purpose are generally left uncolored.
