Recycled art
These days, people can’t wait to leave the nest and all its comforts. But Aditi Mahajan says that she can’t imagine not seeing her mother, Sunila Mahajan, for even a day. They spend hours together, bonding over arts and crafts, and this unique relationship is reflected in their start-up, ‘Dots to Lines’.
Started earlier this year, ‘Dots to Lines’ is a creative platform where the two share their trade secrets with their customers in the most colourful and exquisite manner. From home decor to accessories and stationery, they hand make them all with much patience and dedication.
Aditi gave up her career as a children’s educator to take a gamble on this venture. Sunila, however, has always had an artistic bend and spends a major part of her time working on crafts or teaching them.
Talking about how the idea to start this came about, Aditi explains, “We are into handcrafted products and a large part of our items are made from MDF or recycled wood. It all began when we ended up with some wooden scraps at home. Instead of disposing of them, my mother suggested we make something out of them. So we got them cut in various shapes — cats, bunnies, fish, butterflies — and turned them into keyrings. Usually, people make keyrings small but we decided to make them a little bulky and different. When my friends saw this, they loved them and suggested we make something more.”
There is a story behind how each of their products came about. “A cousin was getting married so we designed a tray for the couple. It became a hit and more people wanted it!” says Aditi. The accessory line walked in because of popular demand. “When people noticed our work, they began asking us to make jewellery.
We didn’t find a reason not to, so now we work on pendants, necklaces, earrings and more,” she adds. Selling mainly on online portals and at various flea markets and ‘santhes’, the two have a range of products to display — fridge magnets, photo frames and more.
“I love to collect photo frames so we thought we’d make some of them. Since everything is handmade, it’s a problem to replicate an item, but we try our best. When there’s a sale coming up, we make sure to craft at least 20 items per day. But making things in bulk is hard…” says Aditi.
Why did they name it ‘Dots to Lines’? “Multiple dots put together make a line, which in turn makes a pattern and then a design. And unique designs is what keeps us going,” she explains. All their works are bright and colourful because they believe that “they make for a brighter and happier day”. For more details, please visit their Facebook page www.facebook.com/dots2lines.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> Supplements> MetroLife / by Ananya Revanna, Bengaluru / DHNS – October 08th, 2015