1. Product Description: Handicrafts are manual skills making usable products graced with international visual appeal. They are decorative or functional objects generally made by hand. However, hand and power tools may be used in making some craft items. There are many kinds of handicrafts used for decoration and for other purposes, including, as sovereign goods and for tourist attractions. These include paper craft products, leather craft products, pottery products, woodworking, stained glass, jewellery making and others. People buy them for decoration in their houses and as a hobby. Especially, tourists have interest in the various kinds of handicraft products.
2. Rationale: Handicrafts survive to serve a wide market, including that of tourists who want special handicraft products. The Amhara Region has various tourist attractions because of its historical and natural phenomena, such as Lalibela, Fasilidies/Gondar/, the Semen Park, the zege churches, the Blue Nile Water Fall/ Chis Abay/, Lake tana and others. The tourists, /visitors/ who come from different countries will be interested in the handicraft products made in different forms and buy them for decoration and as a hobby. There are also visitors from other regions of the country who visit the historical places and other areas who may be interested and buy the handicraft products as a hobby, as sovereign gift articles and for various purposes. Thus, the production of the handicraft products will generate foreign exchange to the Region and create employment opportunities for the growing labour force, including the disabled. There fore, there is an encouraging environment (condition) to produce various types of handicrafts that will attract tourists who come from different countries.
3. Market Potential:- Hundreds and thousands of tourists visit the natural and historical attraction places of the Region every year, especially during summer, and will be interested in the various handicraft products. There are also people who buy the products for sell and as sovereign gift articles. Hence, there will be sufficient market for the products.
4. Sources of row Materials: The main raw materials for the production of the handicrafts are leather products, paper products, wood, cotton, clay/sand/ and others. Many of these raw materials can be found in the Region.
5. Production process and Technology:- The different handicrafts have different processing techniques and use different technology (machines and tools).
Jewellery:
making ranges from simple work with beads to advanced metal work. For work in metal, the jewellery maker needs a basic knowledge of sawing, filing, soldering and buffing. More advanced techniques including forging metal, costing, that is using moulds to shape molten metal and granulation (attaching pieces of metal without soldering). The work in metal should be equipped with workbench hammers, pliers, files, mallets, burnishes and soldering tools.
Leather craft:
Useful and attractive objects are made from leather using cutting, shaping and joining techniques. More advanced project in the leather craft work require additional tools such as utility knife, punches for caring the leather, thronging chisel, lacing needle, and leather shears.
Pottery:
Ceramic objects, and moulded completely by hand or thrown (shaped on a potter’s wheel; a device with a rotating horizontal disk. When the clay hardens, it is fired in a high temperature over a kiln to strengthen it. To make the object waterproof glazes can then be applied and the pieces are fired again.
Woodworking:
In the case of wood working (wood craft) techniques as sawing, joining and finishing can be employed to make a wide variety of useful and ornamental objects from jewellery boxes to picture frames. Equipment used includes, frames, a workbench and carpentry tools, a meter box, a measuring tape, sand paper and varnishes.
Other crafts can also be made using different techniques and machines (tools).
6. Estimated Investment Cost: The establishment of the handicraft production will require a minimum area of 500m2 , whose investment cost will be about Birr 200,000. Purchase of different machines and tools may cost Birr 1,500,000. Total estimated investment cost, therefore, will be about Birr 1,700,000.
7. Benefits: It will generate foreign exchanges. It creates earnings for those involved in handcraft products in the form of profits, and generates revenue for the Regional Government in the form of income tax and VAT. It will crate employment opportunity for the growing labour force int eh Region.
8. Location: Bahir Dar, Gondar, lalibaella and other tourist attraction places in the region.