Folk Art in Sri Lanka

           Tradition of handicrafts in Sri Lanka estimated for centuries. Over the millennia, local craftsmen have learned to do anything. Embodied in the Hindu deities tree, the Buddha, the fauna of Sri Lanka, scenes from the life of Sri Lankans. Wherever the traveler went to Sri Lanka, will accompany him everywhere merchants souvenirs. Among other items - wooden statues and masks. Most often it's elephants or figures of fishermen - "Fishman." You can shrug off pesky salesmen, and try to visit the factory where these trifles are born. It will show different types of wood, tell that nice furniture for the home can be obtained from the mahogany, and for the garden - teak wood from the speckled coconut turns a beautiful and practical kitchen utensils. And then one of the staff, like the magician, quickly added into the glass chips, and the water is colored a bright red color, a drop of lemon juice - the liquid turns yellow, lime - magenta. For example, adding a different natural ingredients, you can create 21 paint, for example, masks.

            All the tourists buy souvenirs in memory of the country. This is usually the product of teak and ebony wood, as well as products made of bone. Usually toutist buy such souvenirs during the excursions, stopping at specialty stores or during a holiday on the coast, at the store away. However, from the economy, some tourists themselves  shops in resort towns, traded for a long time and eventually buy handicrafts are much cheaper. As a result, on arrival home, the product starts to crack, then it turns out that this is not ebony.

           To avoid disappointment, we recommend you to buy souvenirs only at reputable stores. In this case, you are somehow immune from the purchase of substandard products. In Sri Lanka, high humidity, and if the products were made of wood with a natural moisture content, then coming back home, after a while you will find that the product was covered with large cracks. In addition, if you are offered an elephant made of ebony, weighing 3.5 kg, all for $ 40, give up buying - it is a fake!

            Identify fraud is sometimes quite difficult. To meet the weight of ebony, inside the metal can be, and the product itself could undergo a special treatment under the ebony. The most simple - drop a knife on the bottom, the untreated side of the product. But this is not a guarantee. The same applies to products made of bone. You can sell much cheaper than other places, the product of an epoxy resin filler.