STONE & WOOD CARVINGS: Stone carving is an age-old craft of Orissa. The descendants of the artisans who once scaled the dizzy heights of excellence in temple building have kept the sculptural tradition alive through their hereditary craft of stone carving. The carved products include replicas of temples, images of gods and goddesses, the Konark wheel and horse, and decorative figurines like alasa kanya (the indolent damsel) salabhanjika (lady leaning against a sal branch), surasundari (heavenly. beauty), lekhika (lady writing a letter), etc. which are popular items of household decoration. Wood carvings of Orissa are almost equally popular. They differ from the artifacts of other states in so far as they are plain and shining with smooth polish and without any paint or coating of lacquer work on them.Apart Orissa has many other items of handicraft such as paper mache, sola pith work, lacquer work, zari work, glass beads, cloth garlands, camphor garlands, jute carpets, rush mate, and above all the, sea shell works undertaken in Puri and Gopalpur.
