Craftsman Suresh reinstates Nettoor Petti to the living rooms of Kerala

Nettoor, a village in Thalassery district was once famous for its Nettoor Petti used for keeping jewelleries and gold in temples and palaces. Since the modern lockers are safer to keep the jewelleries, this box slowly became obsolete. Now, Nettoor petti has taken back its place in the living rooms of Kerala through the efforts of a craftsman named V V Suresh Kumar.

“There is no one known to be making this box in Nettoor and it may have vanished when its importance faded away. I learned this art from my father G Vishwanathan Achari who was a master craftsman and a recipient of Kerala State Government’s award for the best handicrafts in 1987”, said Suresh.

Nettoor petti has a lot of demand and people prefer to use it as a show piece to bring a touch of Kerala tradition inside their houses. The wood used for making this box is carved into various shapes and brass is cast and cut in the workshop at his own house where his assistants help him out. The finished product is polished later and the brass clamps are designed with various patterns. Everything is handmade starting from the box, screws, handles, locks, designs and so on. Different boxes like ‘Ari Petti’ to store grains, ‘Aatapetti’ otherwise called Kathakali Petti to keep Kathakali costumes, Kai Petti and Kaal Petti are some of the Nettoor pettis that attract the customers. He has customers from Kerala as well as from abroad. Suresh also added that mouth publicity of his skill spread by the satisfied customers was his success in this business.

In order to attract more customers, Suresh tried to work with the box adding more ornamentation and customisation. He also makes Medicine Chest made of wood, Aana Kaal seats and other innovative experiments. “It is also used as mementos where logos and name plates are also designed by us. Each one has a concept on how their box should look like. We add their ideas into our own and make a good piece out of it. It takes eight days to make one single box” said Suresh. The boxes are also given PU coating so as not to compromise with the colour of the box and the colour will not fade away.

Climatic changes too affect the production of these boxes since the painted product has to dry up. Even though he is passionate about making the boxes, Suresh finds it hard to make both ends meet. “Now a days, the making of Nettoor Petti has become a subject of commercial interest and the quality of wood and box is often compromised. Original Nettoor Petti costs Rs 3000 per piece which itself is affordable but the cheap rate of the duplicate ones affect our market”, he added.

Suresh is planning to start online sale of these boxes since the demand for Nettoor Petti is increasing. He is unhappy of the fact that youngsters are not coming into this field and those who have the skill do not even stick with this business.