Starter Kit. Idea 52 of 500. Cluster 3
Custom wood carvings of the Lion's Paw and other motifs
The mechanism, from the book
The Zermatt water bottle. Sigiriya has not got a stone with its own name on it.
The first step
Ask a woodcarver to carve one small Lion Paw plaque as a sample, and to price a run of 20. Show the sample to three guesthouse owners near the rock, and send a photograph to a Sri Lankan gift shop abroad. Ask each for a trial order at the quoted price. Two orders, even small ones, prove the demand.
- Who pays first
- Visitors who have climbed past the Lion Paw and want it on their wall, and the guesthouses that sell to them.
- What leaves today
- The Lion Paw is photographed by every visitor and sold by nobody; a carving turns the image into income for a local maker.
Ask first
- National Crafts Council. Ask which carvers they know who could make motifs in quantity.
- Forest Department. Ask which woods can be legally bought for carving in quantity.
Check before you spend
That the wood is legally sourced, whether the motif can be used commercially, and that carvings can leave the country without trouble.
Find out these three numbers
- What will visitors pay for a carved Lion Paw?
- How many pieces can one carver finish in a week?
- Which shops near Sigiriya would stock them?
A comparison from the book
Sigiriya. Chapter Five
"And there is nothing to buy that is from there."
A carving of the site's own motif is exactly what the car park lacks.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.