BENGALURU: Who needs expensive craft material when tonnes of plastic waste is lying around? City-based software engineer MR Sreenivasulu is a firm believer in saying no to plastic, and uses his old hobby and childhood passion to craft architectural models from used pen refills. Sreenivasulu, who has been practising the art for 13 years, has now created a miniature replica of the Golden Temple in Amritsar using over 1,500 pen refills. It took him two years and four months to complete the intricate model.
“Pen refills are one of the most ignored forms of plastic, which may not be involved in the recycling process. As most pen users are school and college students, there would be an enormous impact on the environment if we educate them on plastic waste and on the need to reduce, reuse and recycle plastic,” says Sreenivasulu, who is among the finalists across the world for the upcoming Rosanna Orlandi (RO) Plastic Prize. The award is part of the Milan Design Week happening in Italy during Sept. 28 to Oct. 10. The award ceremony will be held at the Leonardo Da Vinci Science and Technology Museum.
Sreenivasulu’s achievement is a result of decades of work. He had a hobby of collecting used pen refills from friends. He wanted to become an architect, but took up computer science and engineering on the advice of his parents. After a few years, he decided to continue his passion towards architecture and also create something out of the used pen refills he had collected over the years. Thus started his journey of making miniature buildings out of pen refills.
At first, Sreenivasulu used 200 refills to create a small replica of Eiffel Tower in 2007. Later, he recreated buildings like Charminar, Big Ben, Taj Mahal, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Gateway of India, Seattle Space Needle, Sydney Harbor Bridge, and Mysuru’s St Philomena Church. He wants to create all the famous landmarks across the world, and to use the replicas as education material for architecture students.
“My interest in this field in childhood, when I used to make miniature house models using marriage invitation cards,” says Sreenivasulu, who hails from Dharmavaram in Andhra Pradesh. He started painting at the age of seven, and also makes sculptures out of chalk and other material. He is also a trained dancer, having learnt Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi, and has given many stage performances. Sreenivasulu organises a ‘Say No to Plastic’ programme in schools and colleges to create awareness about global warming, as a part of which he sets up collection boxes for used pen refills. It serves a dual purpose, by also supplying him raw material for his artworks.