KOCHI: A used bottle is reborn as a doll, old fabrics refashioned as breezy gowns, old cardboard pieces and ice cream sticks styled into miniature musical instruments — waste becomes art when Sai Mridhula
wears her creative gloves. Sai was always creative but wasn’t in touch with it until the lockdown gave her ample time to do so.
As long as this 20-year-old is concerned, nothing is a waste. “Something extraordinary can be created even from things we throw away. When you have more than enough things to upcycle at home, why buy anything new?” asks the final-year BBA student who hails from Kollengode in Palakkad. Sai entered the India Book of Records for ‘maximum bottles decorated by an individual’ recently.
Paper plates, old cloth bags, dresses, foils, coins, jewellery, thermocol, packaging sponge, broken CD pieces, old chart paper, coir, and even chapati dough are part of her artwork. “I collect everything — it old chart paper I used for school projects or broken jewellery. For instance, the insides of the gowns have writings on them because they are made from used chart papers,” quips Sai.
She started selling her work recently. “I have just sold two dolls because selling was never a priority to me. I usually gift them to my friends,” she says. Sai recently made the headgear used in Kathakali with old bottles and other scrap pieces. And every time she makes something new, Sai is overjoyed. “It is nice when you create something and people start appreciating it. I want to eventually teach craft and art to students,” says Sai.