BENGALURU: If you’re planning on surprising a friend with a gift, this New Year’s, get him or her jewellery. Better yet, get them upcycled jewellery.
Silver Nut Tree, a Bengaluru-based firm uses PET bottles, CDs, discarded washers, nuts, bolts and tyre tubes to make fine jewellery.
Angeline Robinson, 39, says she took to upcycling plastic bottles to initially educate her children.
“They were learning about upcycling at school and asking me all kinds of questions about making art out of plastic bottles. We made earrings out of it and the first one received a lot of attention on social media. Orders started pouring in and that is when we realised the potential of a business,” says Angeline.
The venture was founded by Angeline Robinson, Rituparna Das and Lakshmi Prakash in 2012. Lakshmi however, dropped off later.Angeline and Ritu collect, assemble and make jewellery from plastic
bottles.
Since the jewellery is handcrafted, there can be similarities in the making but no two jewellery look alike, assures Angeline. The images on the jewellery are ‘desi’.
Speaking about her passion for the art, Angeline says, “If there is some music or Indian vintage art piece that fascinates us, we try to incorporate it into our work.”
Mughal miniature artwork, peacocks and lotus designs make for great sales.
The team sources plastic bittles from neighbours. A few event managers too save up discarded bottles from stalls and exhibition centres for them.
It takes nearly five days to work on one piece of jewellery, sometimes seven, depending upon the intricate details worked on.
The past year has been very successful for Silver Nut Tree and they are crowned with overwhelming support from people who refer their creations to others, says Angeline.
From online shoppers to loyal customers, Silver Nut Tree has earned quite a fan base, she says.
“It is a very humbling experience. No matter how many people applaud or appreciate us, I still have to go back home and revisit my workspace, filled with bottles and clean and sanitise them to make beautiful jewellery from them.” she adds.
One can donate discarded plastic bottles to the two to be turned into jewellery. You can buy their pieces at https://www.facebook.com/SilverNutTree.