Online shopping, supporting friends :)

Hello - Happy Independence day!

Today I would like to showcase a couple of my friends ventures. All of us at one point or the other think of becoming entrepreneurs, however due to various reasons we do not execute on our plans due to various reasons. It takes immense perseverance and risk taking ability to start something on your own - not to mention the effort!

so - here you go - support them & like their pages...watch them grow...you wont regret it!

Coral Jasmine:

A beautiful collection of curated designer sarees: these guys started yesterday - wishing them loads of luck & I am sure you will rock it!! be the first ones to support these girls!

https://www.facebook.com/coraljasminesarees
www.instagram.com/coraljasminesarees

 

 

Indiann Weaves:

 

My BFF from many years! love her taste in handlooms! She started about 7 months back. Rock on girl!

https://www.facebook.com/IndiAnnWeaves

 

 

 

Have a great weekend!



 

Jewels out of clay

Its been ages since I blogged. having some difficulty transfering pics, hence the delay. How have you been?

Recently I received an email from Sathish, he wanted me to share thesed bautiful Terrakota jewelry creations by his wife Manju. Here is what he had to say:
"I am Sathish born and bought up in Cochin my native place is in Palakkad from where I found Manju as my life partner. She is very reserved by nature and she dint have the confidence to go for work in Cochin. The idea of Jewelry design came to my mind accidentally and I have asked her to try this 2 years before .It took 1 year for her to master the art.
Unfortunately you know that the place where we come from people prefer only Gold jewelry. So we had a big problem of marketing Manju’s creations. We go to exhibitions and display our products for sale . Most of the people do not understand the pain behind making these jewelry. Each bead is made out of hands and fired - it is a painstaking process. We never keep any record or pictures of the products except the Blog which I don’t show to Manju. This keeps her thinking creatively for new designs and patterns. We do not use artificial paints to make them attractive. The thread we use is pure cotton."

If you have any questions/suggestions leave them in the comments section here. If you are interested in buying Manju’s products contact Sathish.

Giveaway - With love from Bangalore, India

In appreciation to all the encouragement you guys have given me in the last 1 year, I have decided to give away this a set of 10 handmade paper post cards named as Reflections of Bangalore by artist Rajendra Bagate to one lucky reader of Aabharan. This set has sketches of 10 different landmarks of Bangalore that I purchased from Craft Corner.

The entire set

A peek into the post cards:

The Bull Temple

International tech park - ITPB

St. Mary's Bascilica

You can frame them, send them to your Friends, make a collage - its up to you. All you have to do is leave a message on this post by 6.00pm CST , Sep 10Th with your city name & country. I will pick a random winner & mail this to you anywhere in the world.

Craft Corner

It all started when I received a beautiful terracotta aroma oil infuser & a hand made paper planner as a gift from one of my friends.

I loved the stuff so much that it prompted me to check out the address of the shop on the handmade paper bag it came in & luckily there was a website address too! I browsed through and was very interested. I decided that I need to feature this store here and sent an email to the enterprising ladies who run the show-Leena & Mala asking if I can visit them & take pics for my blog. They were kind enough to oblige my request. So here you go:

Craft Corner is located in a serene residential locality. They sell a variety of paper & terracotta products under their roof.

Over ten years ago Mala was helping her father with his printing press. That’s where her fascination with paper has started. She started creating paper products. One of the customers at the printing press was holding an exhibition to give a chance to women entrepreneurs and she wanted Mala to showcase her creations. That’s where Mala met her partner Leena & the two of them hit it off really well and decided to become partners & started Craft Corner.

Here are some pics of the wonderful creations from their store. You can visit their website too.

Some terracotta creations under the brand Kshiti:

Aroma oil diffusers

Freshly painted Ganeshas

Elephants

Diyas (Lamps)

Sample of Bengaluru Bimba – range of Bangalore souvenirs:

Sketch of Glass house in Bangalore

More sketches of Tourist spots in Bangalore on these note pad holders

Some hand-made paper creations under the brand name Paper Nothings:

Photo albums & a paper lamp shade

Paper folders

Coasters with a beautiful message on each one of them

Journals/Note books

Photo frames

I enjoyed visiting the store, taking pics & meeting Mala. I also ended up buying a lot of paper products from Bangalore Bimba range. I am definitely going to visit them again to get some cute terracotta Ganeshas they they did not have in stock. I definitely recommend this place if you love handmade stuff like me.

Watch this space for more of my favourite stores in Bangalore & a chance to win a give away soon!

Drooling...

I have been a fan of Amrapali jewellery for a long time now... As of now, I can only drool over all these till I make enough money to afford these. But then, why should I be the only person suffering unable to resist these? Hence sharing them with you all :) Total eye candy!

Gold diamond coral turquoise earrings

Gold multi stone enamel eerrings

Silver Zircon pendant

Gold - Ruby - Diamond - Emerald - necklaces (above & below)

Gold silver diamond emerald pearl necklace

Gold silver diamond rubilite necklace

Gold tourmaline diamond necklace

Six yards of beauty & elegance

Today is Aabharan's first anniversary! I cant believe its been a year! A big thank you to all you guys for the encouragement, suggestions & support!

Love ~Shillu~

I decided to celebrate this special day with this colorful post :: Six yards of beauty & elegance.

At work we have a some fun events & one such event was the "Traditional dressing day". Here are a few pics for you: Thanks to all the guys who posed patiently for me :)

The lovely colors, the intricate details & the matching bangles made this day very beautiful :)

Handicrafts exhibition

I love all kind of crafts exhibitions, especially for the colorful displays and some unexpected surprises you bounce on sometimes. I also love bargaining with the vendors - Thats the best part of shopping in India?

Some pics that I clicked at 'Sampoorn' - a handicrafts exhibition held in Bangalore.

Colorful vases - My fav is the brown one in the background (behind the camel pic vase)

"Juti's" in all sizes, patterns & designs

I love these colorful woven baskets - especially the wooden parrot handles on top of the lids.

Ceramic stuff - I love the colors and the variety here. I have my eyes on the kids tea set which is to the bottom right side of this pic.

Copper handmade bells in different sizes

'Bead' it up

Black beads with silver embellishments

Brown beads with an over sized brass pendant
Bracelets & Earrings in vibrant colors

Wooden beads to dress up any outfit - Traditional or western wear. I picked some of these from Pondicherry & some from various handicraft exhibitions in Safina Plaza, Bangalore.