Kondapalli Dolls – Colorful handcrafted dolls

Kondapalli is a small town in Andhra Pradesh.  This is famous for dolls made out of wood and painted with natural colors. Some families migrated 400 years ago, from Rajasthan, started making these dolls for their livelihood. Few of these artisan families have continued making the dolls and this craft is carried forward to the next generation  These dolls are made from white sandust wood , available in nearby forests. And the colors used are natural colors. 

Earlier the craftsmen used to make dolls of mythological characters like Krishna, Rama etc and dolls of animals and birds.  Here are the images of such dolls of mythological characters 

Shri Rama Parivara(Family of Shri Ram): Image courtesy http://sriramsamruddhigreen.com/

Shrinivasa and Padmavati : Image courtesy http://sriramsamruddhigreen.com/

Goddess Laxmi with elephans on both sides Image courtesy http://sriramsamruddhigreen.com/

Dancing Ganesha-image courtesy :http://sriramsamruddhigreen.com

The process of making dolls involves, carving the wood and painting intricately , with natural colors. The craftsmen also make dolls depicting the rural lifestyles, through images of people and animals., like the below one , vegetable vendor.

Vendors selling vegetables  image courtesy :
http://sriramsamruddhigreen.com/

Musicians. image courtesy :
http://sriramsamruddhigreen.com/

The changing time, liking of the people to fancy plastic dolls, have made the Kondapalli dolls makers go through rough patch , regarding the sales of dolls. This happens with any craft. This has made the artisans to adapt their skills to make dolls which attract the new generations. So we can see dolls of vehicles, dolls depicting modern lifestyle etc. And also home decor items.

Photo frame image courtesy : http://sriramsamruddhigreen.com/

Bullock cart
image courtesy : http://sriramsamruddhigreen.com/

Father helping kids in studies Photo frame image courtesy : http://sriramsamruddhigreen.com/

Nowadays, Kondapali dolls have taken significant  place in home decor and designing market.

 Kondapalli toys are bought during Dasara  for the celebration of Gombe habba. During the preparation of Gombe Habba  , many of the readers ask me , about the sellers of  good quality , original traditional Kondapalli dolls. One such seller is Sriram Sumriddhi. They have wide variety of traditional dolls and miniatures. I have bought some dolls from them. I’m satisfied with their quick service and  quality of dolls.You can reach  by visiting their FB page: https://www.facebook.com/sriramsamruddhi and their website : http://sriramsamruddhigreen.com/.

Another kind of dolls from Andhra Pradesh, is Etikoppa dolls. Soon will share about Etikoppa dolls too.

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana