Hasthakala @ Adukala - Part1

Here are a few accidental creations from my kitchen :)

This happened when I was boiling a mix of veggies for mezhukupuratti (stir-fry). What with shuttling between cooking and cleaning and laundry and crafting in the 4 hrs when my son is at school, accidents like this are bound to happen! I didn't worry about it too much though, I liked the "art" that was formed. It could easily qualify for a wall art with only the center detail focussed and framed! :D


I was making rawa + atta + coconut dosa for dinner one night and all dosas in that batch had a hole :) This particular one was interesting though - a skewed heart! And then I clicked it on my mobile immediately :D 

This was formed when I poured curd into a mix of rawa and oats to make dosa batter another day :) Another interesting heart ;-)

Hasthakala Creations in Facebook turns one year! :)

Hello all,

Today is my father’s birthday, and today is also Hasthakala Creations’s first birthday! :) This sure calls for a looooooooooong story, right?! ;-)

So, let the music beginnnn…..

Like I always say, this interest and passion towards crafting began during my school days. And then in 2009, with a lot of help from my husband, I began blogging about my creations @hasthakala.blogspot.in. I thoroughly enjoyed blogging, only that I was not very active once my son was born. And after 2yrs when I thought of returning to it, facebook was “the happening” thing then. So we created this page called Hasthakala Creations as a Personal Blog and began adding newer creations here instead.

Once I learnt the method of making earrings, I used to make and wear my own, however poor their finish was. In fact, I even wore an incomplete, unbaked terracotta set that I’d learnt as part of a workshop. Luckily for me, it didn’t rain that day! :) Guess all crafters are proud of their makes, for, more than the final outcome of the learning, it is the time and passion and love that has gone into the making that makes it priceless in the eyes of the crafter!

Hasthakala Creations for sales was something completely unplanned. It was only from the comments and encouragements that I received for a picture that I’d posted here, that we planned to take it to the next level. So initially I made a few samples for friends, tested courier services for packaging and safe delivery, worked on feedback and finally launched it to public on Feb. 3rd last year. The first day was exciting and I was a lot nervous too! Sat in front of the system almost the entire day after posting my first few products for sale, and then when nothing happened by the end of the day, I found that some setting was wrong and it was not shown to anybody other than me! Ho, that was a moment of mixed emotions :D

And then slowly sales began to happen. The first few customers were my dear friends who encouraged me then and still continue to encourage me. And then it was friends of friends, and still is mostly. Really feels proud to say that Hasthakala Creations products have also reached Australia, Singapore and the United States of America. The opening of Carolz Jewelry store near here was a big boost for Hasthakala. Carolyn herself being a jewelry maker, gave me much needed guidance on the making, pricing and we also started taking customized orders at the store. She’s been a very understanding friend, gives me enough time for orders and lifts me up when I go really low! With her happened my very first experience of standing on the other side of the table at an exhibition. That was a nice exposure too. And this new year began with my first ever bulk order..so so happy about it! :)

We then began expanding our “product line” of handmade goods from quilled earrings to rakhis for rakshbandhan, gift boxes, flowers, fridge magnets, hand-decorated photo frames, quilled chains, finger-rings and the most recent recycled bags. Working on handmade Christmas gifting options was fun too, only that I didn’t do it well in advance. Nevertheless that was a learning that will come into use every year!

The next milestone for Hasthakala was beginning with workshops at the store, either a one-on-one class for home-makers, or classes for groups. They are always fun times and they say I am a good teacher! :) There definitely is going to be many more workshops at the store and we are also planning to begin at home. Hopefully we will bring out something like a 3-5 day workshop for the summer vacations. Fingers crossed on that! :)

Like everything has its own 2 sides, Hasthakala had too. There has been many a time when I regretted having started this. Either it was the monetary factor since I spend a lot on raw materials than what I get from selling completed products, or for the fact that I spend lesser time as a home-maker and with my son now. But then friends reassure me saying Sidhu is growing up too! Hmmmm, that’s true! :( :) And there were times when negative feedbacks pushed me so so low that I kept crying for hours together! (I am very sensitive when it comes to things about my passion)And, what do I do to come out of it?! Read my college slam book, or listen to “Vijanathayil paathi vazhi..” from the Malayalam movie How Old Are You..(I’m completely in love with that movie!) or chat endlessly with friends, what greater boost than that?! :D Carolyn gave me a half-hug when she heard of one of my bad experiences from Hasthakala. Wow, that was such a kind gesture!  Positive feedbacks help for sure, but negative also has a good side to it. True, it hurts me a lot at that moment, but at the end I learn a new lesson and come out stronger, and I must say, it feels totally great then :D Trying to look at the little-est positive side of negative things has helped me a lot in my personal life as well, what say my dearest closest friends?! ;)

BTW, have you all got bored with the profile and cover pictures? And the fact that I have not changed the page category from “Personal blog” to something more appropriate? Well, I have not done any other craft more suiting than what I put one year ago, and continuing to maintain it as a blog gives me the freedom to write such looong stories once-in-a-while,  agreed?! ;)

Ok, so that is about Hasthakala’s journey in this first year, looking forward to many many more to come. Hasthakala will always be about my passion, it will continue to be my creative space, than a business/venture. Maybe when my son is a little older, I will think about Hasthakala as something much more than just a passion. But until then, let me enjoy being a mother first and then a crafter. Please continue to understand and still support me to go on. I have many newer crafts planned and noted down in my project book :)

So till then, here’s something by OSHO from the “Points to Ponder” section of a Reader’s Digest..something very very meaningful!
“A creative act enhances the beauty of the world..I am not saying that your creativity is going to give you power, prestige, money..All that I can promise you is that deep inside you will be the richest man possible; deep inside you will be fulfilled..”

Thanks to all my likers and well-wishers, do continue to encourage Hasthakala Creations and spread the word!

Love,
Smitha

My experiments in tailoring

A vacation to my hometown during Dec2012-Jan2013 proved productive, thanks to Sr.Preethi of Lourde Tailoring Institute. She taught me the art of tailoring, particularly churidars and blouses. With that knowledge and a new Poonam double machine, back in Bangalore, I began experimenting with other dresses. Initially I started converting my old churidar tops into sleeveless shirts for my toddler. Since stitching them for him meant lesser fabric and lesser time, I considered beginning with these as a very good learning experience. Once I’d stitched close to a dozen of them, I moved to this style of jubba. Onam was nearing and I wanted him to have a mommy-made Onakodi :) The first few jubbas were of the type where you put it over the head. Since that was not much of a success, I decided to try the front open types. They looked good; the only problem though was getting him to let me try it on! He was totally adamant about not trying them and thus I kept repeating the same mistake in each of these. The mistake – the armpit measurement and sleeve width had to be a little loose. :( Anyways, I did force the golden one on him for his auntie’s wedding :) Pity him, he was just waiting to get out of it, kept telling “Amme kai novunnu...ooru ooru”(translation: “my hand is hurting, remove remove”)! Paavam :( Hmmm, there’s always a next time. I’ve already bagged a few orders from my jeeju and father-in-law! Thank you for encouraging me :D

For my Sis

My sister’s birthday this year was special, why? Because it was her first birthday after I’d attended the TTP workshop! I had to be creative this time rather than give her a greeting card.

The shilpkar and canvas board art I did at the workshop had not come out as good as expected. So I took this as a chance to try it again. I thought about the background, the images, the content and the border designs for a long time before coming up with this. The final product depicts an interesting time-pass that I and my sister shared during our growing-up days. That was the time when we were crazy about Shahrukh Khan movies and loved DDLJ, KKHH and the like. We used to buy audio cassettes (CDs were not popular then) of all movies, by heart the lyrics given in the booklet and sing along while playing those in my sister’s favourite music player. Oh, such fun we’ve had! So, in my gift, the girl on the left is my sister, the one on the right is me, both of us holding the booklet, and loud music being played on the top-right music player. Interesting isn’t it? :) but I still need to give it some back-end support, since it only leans against some support. Nevertheless , it now leans proudly against my sister’s cubicle desk. She loved it :D

Hobby Ideas TTP Workshop

I recently attended this 3-day Teacher Training Programme conducted by Hobby Ideas, and am extremely glad that I scored an A+ in the project submission :)

This workshop covered basics of drawing, paper quilling, punch craft, stamping, working with crackle medium and shilpkar among various other techniques. We were given simple home-works that included practising various strokes using liner brush, making a mehendi design on paper, fabric painting a few designs given, quilling on paper bag and envelopes and so on.  Though the term “homework” did put me into a little pressure, since I had to take care of an active toddler, do my cooking and other chores at home too, it was extremely enjoyable at the end. Thanks to Leena, Meenakshi and of course Hobby Ideas for giving us this opportunity to take our talents and interests to the next level. It truly was a welcome break for me after being at home for 2.5yrs! :)

The next few blog articles below will cover my projects done during this 3-day workshop.

Tribal Art

Once back home from the workshop, I showed off my creations to my husband and this was his remark about this tribal art,” This is extraordinary!” :) Hmmm...maybe. Had it cracked properly, I would have agreed with him.

This was our session on working with crackle medium and shilpkar. Our tutor gave us clear instructions on how to work with the crackle medium.

• Use big flat brush for this project
• Do not use water
• 1^st coat of paint is the one that shows through the cracks
• Then apply crackle medium, wait for it to be tacky (not too dry, not too wet)
• Apply 2^nd coat of contrasting paint making sure not to paint on the same area twice (lest the paint should get removed) and maintain the direction of strokes

I did get all of them in my head, but was a little too creative! She’d specifically asked us to paint the 2^nd coat with acrylic colours and I used acrylic pearl colours instead! Thought I could give an extra shine to my work. But little did I know that the effect wouldn’t come out well when pearl colours are used. Since it didn’t come out well like what the other’s got, she suggested doing an additional coat of crackle medium on top and another coat of brown when tacky. This is the end result. You can still slightly make out the cracks.

Making the tribal face with shilpkar was easy since I’d already done a frame with m-seal. The technique was the same. The face did come out well with all jewellery and details done, but I kept cribbing about how I’d ruined the background :( I’ve anyways bought all necessary items to try this out again. Hope I get it right the next time..