A carved egg shell. A glass sheet etched with intricate patterns. A hot glue gun dispensing little drops that can fix anything to anything including little gems on a photo frame. A handy mechanised saw hiving hunks off a wooden slab to reveal the shape of a clock. A sanding machine purring over a hand-made stool to give it a satiny finish. At the spanking new Bosch DIY Square (Sarjapur Road), many art and craft enthusiasts were recently invited to experience and explore the joy of blending inspiration with technology to create their own pieces of art.
A few months back, the first DIY Square on Bannerghatta Road had hosted a beginner’s workshop as well and many others subsequently to demonstrate how using tools can be actually fun once the initial diffidence melts away. At this particular workshop, a DIY trainer Madhavi was at hand to move things along. She was gifted an etching tool a few years ago by her husband. She then experimented on different surfaces and today makes intricate designs on egg shells, glass sheets and wood.
A seriously advanced carpentry workshop is scheduled in the near future and though DIY in India till now just meant dabbling with pottery, creating homely artefacts and simple crafts, the idea of making a chair or a table from scratch, cutting wood, sanding glass, fixing doors and windows may now become a part of a home-maker’s agenda, as well.
Vijay Pandey, the Vice President of Bosch’s power tools division says, “The idea behind opening an unobtrusive nursery where people could learn the ABC of DIY was to kindle a gentle curiosity about tools and how if used imaginatively, they could change your home and your perspective.
The shift has slowly but surely begun. Even with just a soft launch and virtually no publicity, the footfalls have increased in the Bannerghatta Road DIY Square every month with people wanting to buy handy little machines to not just mow their lawns, wash their cars, trim their overgrown hedges but also to learn the use of laser precision tools, advanced tool kits and more.
“This is not a pretty retail lounge or an intimidating tool store. It is a hobby centre, a place to learn and acquire new skills. In India, we are not at par as yet with the DIY level accomplished by European consumers but our goal is to get there,” says Pandey.
That may take some time but for now, workshops organised at the two DIY Squares have seen enthusiastic beginners handling flame torches to burnish wood, learning to cut tiles into fine mosaic pieces for craft projects and learning to hang pictures with nail guns. Once they discover how empowering a tool can be, they cannot keep their hands off new projects and keep coming back for more.
Call 9945004541 or send and email to deepak@intententerprises.com for details.