BENGALURU: Amruta Kadaba makes eco-friendly papier-mache clocks. She has done a 100 already. Even as the online shopping portals offer a wide range of products at throwaway discounted prices, handmade clocks retains its loyal clientele.
Amruta Kabada has been making handmade clocks since 2007. She specialises in papier-mache ones – made solely from paper pulp and glue.
“Initially, I made decorative items, pen stands and piggy banks. But then thought of making handmade clocks to gift friends and relatives. Noticing my work people started approaching me to order personalised clocks.”
She customises clocks according to customer’s requirements. The clock designs are mostly based on a room’s aesthetics. Her clocks are inspired by many objects and themes, including colour palette, guitar, Spiderman, tribal art, animals or fruits usually for kids, flower, football/ basket ball, bike and car. Since they are made from paper, she says, they are completely eco-friendly.
So what is the technique she uses to make these clocks? “There is no special technique for this as such. I just make sure that the paper folds are perfect and tight. A normal paper cuter should serve the purpose. A readymade clock mechanism is then fit into the stencil design. Each handmade clock takes around two to five days, based on the intricacy of the design,” she explains.
The self-taught art teacher at Trio World Academy also uses acrylic colours, wood, bamboo sticks, glue, newspaper, decorative beeds, sequences, threads and ribbons to accentuate the beauty of it. Once is outer frame is designed, a ready-made clockwork is attached to a hole made in the centre. “Making clocks is easy. But it can be time consuming,” she says.
Her craft started in 2011, when she had just moved to the city, and she could not find a perfect lantern for Diwali. She decided to make one herself. The colorful paper lanterns caught the attention of her neighbours. She now gets huge orders for them during Diwali and Christmas.
A graduate of Abhinav Arts College, Maharashtra, Amruta’s artistic journey began with Akanksha Foundation, an NGO in Pune. During the time that she spent there, she taught art and craft to children living in the slums.
At Trio World Academy, she teaches kids from kindergarten to Class V to make lanterns. She also does paper origami and oil paintings. Her handmade clocks are priced between Rs400 and Rs 2,000.