When you live on a farm in a forest, are of a creative bent of mind, and good with your hands, the woods can be a wonderland of creativity. As they are for quirky crafter Morvarid Fernandez who lives off the land in her village home in Khanapur taluka in Karnataka’s Belgaum district.
Sticks, scraps and stones foraged from walks around her farmland and the forested area beyond have, indeed, yielded the most pretty results. Most others wouldn’t give them a second look, not Fernandez, who brings them home, cleans them up and then shapes and shades them into the prettiest of plaques and paperweights.
“Recycled materials in whatever shape or form really resonate with me, I have a great feel for them. I cannot explain it, but if I see something old or rejected, I must save it,” she explains. There are other sources as well, she says, such as timber depots that have lots of old wood lying around.
Choosing the right combination of materials is what actually matters. The process is preparing and finishing the wood, and then attaching the plaster cast. She tries to keep the shape of the wood as is, and sometimes enhances the edges by scorching them with a blow torch. For the floral patterns, she prefers chalk paint and other water-based mediums because clean-up is so much easier.
In fact, it’s only recently that she’s started to retail these creations under her brand, Forest Understory, and like most small sellers, doesn’t have a website yet, but can be contacted on social media and WhatsApp (9480235842) for orders.
“I live in the forests of the Western Ghats and have plenty of neighbours—birds, squirrels, bison, deer, to name a few. So, my next project is going to be pyrography. I’m looking at some animal burns and have always wanted to burn a wolf!”