Wooden Inlay Craft Curio - Elephants (Small, Set of 2). A beautifully crafted set of curios indeed! Wood inlay craft entails a technique of engraving and creating grooves on wood and then embedding the inlay material into these grooves, allowing a beautiful pattern to emerge on its surface. The origins of the craft date back to the Mughal era. In Hoshiarpur, the craft can be traced back to its history as a centre for ivory carving. Since the ban on the use of ivory, artisans have now shifted to using acrylic, plastic, bronze and even camel bone as substitutes.