Coconut Craft

Traditionally, crafting objects out of coconut shell to make household objects was practiced by coconut farmers. They would scoop out the copra by making a neat hole at the top of the shell, and use the shell, which was normally the waste or by-product. The coconut wood or shell is then crafted into a wide variety of utility articles ranging from candle holders to serving ware and boxes. This art requires great skill on the part of the artisan as the shell is extremely hard and it is not easy to mould into different shapes and sizes. It is believed that as a craft, coconut shell/wood carving could have been taken up by craftsmen from the Vishwakarma community in Kerala. Traditionally involved in sword making and carving wood and ivory, they may have experimented with coconut wood and shell as well. It is believed that this craft may have been brought in to India from Iraq in the 11th century. It is quite plausible that the wood carving artisans from the Middle East and Persia were probably among the first ones to try carving on coconut shell.