KOCHI: For Sandhya Radhakrishnan from Thrissur, the lockdown opened up avenues to turn her love for art into a profitable venture. It was boredom that made the former HR personnel with eight years of experience turn to art and craft.
Sandhya started with bottle art around two months before the lockdown. When she started receiving orders for that, she transitioned to embroidery hoop art. “I was working on bulk orders for bottle art when embroidery art caught my attention. Since I had learned stitching and basics of embroidery, it was easy to learn. I took help from a few YouTube tutorials,” says Sandhya.
She uploaded the first embroidery on her Facebook page, and one of her followers asked her to embroider a portrait. Following this, more orders started coming in, helping Sandhya find a niche for herself in embroidery portraits.
She also managed to personalise the aspects of her work. From experimenting with different types of fabric to fine-tuning the framing and packaging aspects, she has managed to adapt quickly. “Most embroidery portraits are done using black thread, but I decided to use colour threads. Even though embroidery is traditionally done on poplin cloth, to give a stronger and more defined base to the work, I have been trying it out on as canvas and collar canvas cloth.
The backside of the hoop is covered with a foam sheet to give a finished look. There is a logo on the back with instruction for care,” adds Sandhya.“For now, I have around seven to 10 commissioned works for each month until December. A single person portrait takes up to a day and a half to complete. It requires hours of dedicated work.
The only hack would be to find a comfortable spot to settle in and ensure good body posture to avoid back pain,” adds Sandhya. She has decided to carry on her independent venture for as long as there are takers for it. Orders are coming from across the state, as well as outside. Facebook and Instagram are the major platforms through which orders come in. The works are done on 10,12 and 14-inch hoops. The rate for a single portrait starts from Rs 1,000.