Wooden Toys and Puzzles from Sri Lanka These chunky wooden puzzles are brought to you by Created from Sri Lanka Wooden Toys and Puzzles from Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is an island off the cost of India Sri Lanka is an island off the cost of India. The capital is Colombo is a big modern city- this is the view from the trade centre

All around the island there are beautiful beaches, many tourist hotels are built right on the beach

This is the one of the beaches at Marawila

If you are up early in the morning you can see the fishermen bring in their catch. The fishermen live in villages along the beach.

-you can’t visit Sri Lanka without having some fun with the elephants!!

Ceylon tea is famous throughout the world Tea is grown on the hillsides in the mountain areas of Sri Lanka

This lady is picking the leaves from the tea bushes This lady is picking the leaves from the tea bushes. You can see that there are some taller trees, called Albezia trees –these are planted to protect the delicate bushes. Albizia is a fast growing tree and it acts as a windbreak in the tea plantations. It needs to be cut regularly, so there is a plentiful supply of wood

Albezia trees grow very quickly –sometimes and grow to as tall as 7m in just over a year. After it is cut and seasoned, it is ideal for making chunky jigsaw puzzles (but not much else as it’s a very soft wood)

Gospel House Handicrafts Gospel House Handicrafts is an organisation who employ (mostly) young people to make wooden toys. It was set up 30 years ago to train unemployed youths. Many of the people in Sri Lanka are poor and the Gospel House team are helping to provide employment and training so that they will be able to have useful skills that will enable them to earn a living These are some of the single story workshops where the puzzles are made Gospel House Handicrafts

Gospel House Handicrafts produces a vast number of chunky wood jigsaw puzzles This is a pile of Albizia wood waiting to be processed.

First the design is screen printed onto the plank of wood

This is a popular tortoise design waiting to be cut

The puzzles are cut on a jigsaw

The puzzles have their first sanding -Albizia wood creates a lot of dust during the sanding process. Here the dust is being collected in an extractor.

Even the dust is not wasted- it is mixed with glue and pressed into shapes which are made into fridge magnets The idea for sawdust compression came in 1996 when GH were forced to consider alternative methods of disposing of the waste sawdust instead of burning. It has taken a lot of experimentation and trial and error, but now a good mix of saw dust and glue has been found, using only the finer dust, and the compressed mixture is strong enough to make small 3D items like fridge magnets and pen holders.

First the shape must be carved from wood and a fibre glass mould is made. The girl then mixes the sawdust and glue/water solution and fills the mould, pummelling it with a stick to make sure it is well compressed! The shape is turned out and left to dry in the sun for 3 days (4 if it is raining) and then baked in the oven for 2 days. A separate group has the job of painting the dried magnets.

The chunky puzzle pieces are transported to a nearby village so that the fine sanding can be done. Each individual piece is hand sanded by a group of out workers. This provided much needed work for the community Seelawathi is the supervisor.

The sanded pieces are covered in fine dust so they need to be blown clean with this blower before they are painted. The jigsaw puzzles are made and unmade many times during the process. Seelawathi at the blowing machine.

Seelawathi has been able to build a substantial brick home with the income from this work. Their original home, which was very prone to storm damage is now used as a store, the family live in the brick built house.

The puzzles are returned to the main site where they are spray painted The puzzles are returned to the main site where they are spray painted. All the paint used conforms to European safety standards. Water sprays down the metal drum wall and this sucks the paint spray away from the operator.

The fine detail is done by team of girls The fine detail is done by team of girls. The young women are really pleased to work for Gospel House since the only other employment available to them is in garment factories –where the conditions are not good.

Finally the jigsaw puzzles are shrink wrapped and the CE label added Then they are securely packed for export (The CE label assures customers that the puzzles comply with all the European safety legislation)

Created has been working with Gospel House for more than 30 years, it was Created (formerly Tearcraft) who gave them their their first big order. Now the organisation has grown and they send their products to many customers around the world. It’s a real success story – hundred’s of people have been helped to a better way of life.