must be free from heavy metals and shouldnt dazzle no part of the toy should have pointed parts and should withstand pull test that is parts should be fixed for safety of children the diameter of the toys should be of minimum 22 inches to avoid accidental swallowing we were unaware of all these norms we then visited the crafts council of india and saw fabrics being made from natural dyes we participated in some workshops in chennai and bangalore where we saw the use of natural dyes on silk wool tussar and cotton i had botany as a subject in my intermediate and maintained a record of the locally available flora from which dyes can be made i contacted the head of the botany department in andhra university r seshagiri rao and collected information from him we also experimented with natural colours on lac for making the toyswhich exhibitions did you participate and what did you learn from themin 1989 we participated in man and nature exhibition held at hauz khas in new delhi we realised we had been more focussed on quantity rather than quality and i was determined to improve on the quality of the products then in 1991 we participated in wcc exhibition at jehangir art gallery mumbai where we got the export order to london an interesting incident happened during the baroda exhibition in 1993 we took articles worth rs 37000 for the fiveday exhibition but the entire range was sold within oneandahalfday chairperson of dastakar delhi laila tyabji one of the organisers visited our stall we had sold most of the products to ms university of baroda and again we requested them to allow us to bring the alreadysold stuff and display those for the exhibition next we came in contact with west bengal crafts council chairperson ruby pal chowdhury in 1993 and in turn got in touch with mennonite central committee of pennsylvania usa its representative marilyn millar visited etikoppaka and ordered hundreds of catch balls tic tac toes and thousands of tops between 1993 and 2007 we exported toys to them they had identified etikoppaka as one of the 10000 villages of craftsmen worldwidewas there anyone to help you in your endeavouruzra bilgrami founderpatron of dastakar crafts council andhra pradesh had helped us she spent a fortnight studying the art and interacted with the artisans she helped us participate in various exhibitions facilitated by crafts council and funded by the development commissionate of handicrafts she suggested that we get exposed to other artisans and diversify our products the toys should be decorative and they should have utilitarian or practical use in fact uzra designs are still in vogue in the toys such as tic tac toe tops catch balls and so onwhat are the types of toys madewe make varieties of tops dolls rattlers idols key chains jewellery like ear rings bangles decorative and utility items like pen stands and candle stands utensils pots vases bowls and vermilion boxestell us about the