Crafted with care

CHENNAI : Journals with ethnic motif printed fabric covers are stacked neatly on a shelf. Handcrafted and hand-painted coasters made of newspapers sit pretty beside them. Gift covers with vibrant prints are spread on a table. A scroll down Palaya - House of Kraft’s Instagram page is sure to make art lovers and stationery hoarders go ‘aah’ and ‘oooh’. 

It was started last December by three cousins and partners — Shyamala Sriram, Srividya Murali, and Deepa Sundararajan.“Each of us come from a diverse background. Three years back, we quit our jobs to take part in the formative years of our children. Art and craft is a diversion. We decided to channelise our creativity and quirkiness into a brand. Considering there is a plethora of custom stationery brand online, we decided to keep our products conscious, classy, and non-repetitive,” says Shyamala. 

The brand started off with humble cotton hand-printed bags. After an overwhelming response, they decided to take ideas from customers and create products as per demands and instructions. One of their sustainable fashion innovation is a fabric belt with a threaded buckle that can be customised in the colour of your choice. They use prints like ikat, bandhani, and kalamkari to give it a spin. “A client of ours did not have the heart to throw away her old Kanjivaram sari.

We decided to use it as an inlay material for a tray and placed an acrylic board on top of it. It serves a dual purpose of a decor piece and crockery. We use only medium-density fibreboard wood in all our items,” says Shyamala. They accept orders for return gifts for weddings and special occasions. “We ensure people use the return gifts regularly and don’t treat them like boring objects.

Our hot-seller is traditional kolams or rangolis made in Tanjore painting style with original gold foil. We’ve made two designs — ishwarya kolam and hrudaya kamalam — traditionally drawn in the pooja room to bring in good luck, peace and prosperity.

These have been made on a 5x5 inch wooden base, laminated and come with a stand for placement or can be hung on the wall. This can be a valuable gift for weddings, house-warming or any traditional function,” she says. The partners hope to keep the products pocket-friendly and aesthetic in terms of usage and design.Products are priced from `50 for bulk orders and `200 for regular pieces. For details, visit their Instagram and Facebook page: Palaya - House of Krafts