HYDERABAD : Just bought a guitar? Want to add an unique element to it? Take it to city-based Sapna of Bohemian Soul and Art who will turn the boring old thing into a work of art.
Shoes, stones, mugs, guitars, sketches, you name it and she will do it for you. Started in 2013, the venture, though small has been attracting it’s fair share of clientele. “I was always interested in art. But for a long time it has mostly been a hobby. I first started out with creating designs on walls, moving on to guitars then stones in quick succession,” says Sapna Naidu Franswah, founder of Bohemian Soul and Art.
Though a marriage counselor by profession, Sapna decided to explore the creative side of art fulltime on the suggestion of her friends and family. “My sister-in-law and friends really encouraged me to take it up. Infact a friend actually informed me that some of my designs were actually similar to the Madhubani style of painting,”shares Sapna. Terming her doodles as ‘Zentangles’ which has traces of Madhubani, she says her sketches are her USP. As oil paints take a long time to dry, Sapna prefers to use acrylic paints in her works and very fine pens to draw on the shoes. Though the idea behind her venture is to provide customised art to clients, most of the designs she offers are her own. “So you can place an order with me for art on whatever medium you want. Incase one wants to add some name or pattern, I can do that but mostly the theme or design is decided by me,” explains the 38-year-old.
“These days though, a lot of people want Aztec sort of designs on their shoes. But that takes a long time to do,” comments Sapna, who likes to finish her order on the same day often working late into the night.
“A mug takes me two hours to paint while sketches take a day. Guitars take the most time with four to five hours. Stones take me the shortest amount of time and can be finished in half-an-hour,” adds Sapna.
While most of her work is available to view on her website and Facebook page, the entrepreneur also sells bangles on the e-commerce portal Etsy, which is popular in the United States. “I had started selling customised lac bangles much before I started Bohemian Soul and Art. I draw the sketch I have in mind and then take all the materials required and give it to the bangle maker. I have a tie-up with a courier service which takes care of the delivery,” shares Sapna.
Most of the orders for her bangles though comes from American states mostly like New Jersey, California, San Francisco besides London and Ireland. Although creatively sound, Sapna says she is hopeless when it comes to marketing, which explains why her venture is still in its nascent stage. “I’m really bad with spreading word about Bohemian, my sister-in-law is the one who pushed me to create a Facebook page to showcase my work. Now it is slowly gaining popularity by word-of-mouth. But I know I have to put in more effort towards visibility,” believes Sapna.
Details: www.bohemiansoulart.com