Art in a bottle

KOCHI:  Miniature art has become quite popular among buyers now. Artists have started creating intricate bottle art, weighing less than a few milligrams. Everything from miniature teddy bears, violins and other daily objects are available for sale. Rechu Reji, an Instagram entrepreneur is mesmerising her customers with miniature art in wish bottles. Rechu freezes memorable moments into tiny pieces of art.

Although Rechu started making miniature bottles while she was a first-year architecture student at TKM College of Engineering, Kollam, she started her Instagram page, ‘pint_sized’, nearly a month ago. “I was always fascinated with miniature art. I had exhibited some of my bottle artworks along with my friends at the first edition of Olam at Golf Club, Kowdiar. The response was overwhelming. This gave me the idea to take the business seriously,” says the artist. She recently exhibited over 90 of her miniature glass bottles with beautiful messages inside them, at the Olam festival which was held recently.

Though every piece she makes is perfectly finished, Rechu is a self-taught artist. “When I started creating them, I never expected to be successful. After I started catering to the orders, I started receiving encouraging feedback from family and friends,” she said. Rechu takes extra care in handcrafting each glass bottle she makes. “All my miniatures are made using different materials from scratch.

I try to utilise accessories that I can find around me. Household items like copper wires are bent into required shapes. To make flowers, I use paper and for miniature teddy bears or sculptures, I use clay,” said Rechu. Rechu takes over a week to customise some of her miniature glass bottles. “Placing small objects inside the bottle is a difficult task and requires a lot of patience. Sometimes, it breaks just when you try to place it and you have to start all over again,” she said.