Leather Toys of Indore

The leather toys craft from Indore began as an individual artistic venture but has now taken a mass turn. Today, many in the city are engaged in creating animal shapes for the export market. The sheep and goat leather is used as finishing coverings on iron and dry hay moulds giving interesting shape of animals. This is done in different sizes and different animals are depicted giving them a natural look, texture and finish. The colors are also kept natural as far as possible and the sheen of the animal skin is also maintained on the toy animals. Every toy represents a different movement such as a running horse, a jumping horse, a grazing horse, a neighing horse, a galloping horse and a standing horse. The texture of the skin of the animal is given using pointed tools on the paper pulp when it is still wet and applied on the hay mould by hand keeping in mind the texture of the animal skin in question which gives it a very realistic look. Later, when it is dyed and given deeper shades by hand painting the texture is further enhanced.