Tea Cup Inspirations

Melbourne-based designer Sian Pascale’s latest design is an interesting innovation on the kulhad chai. She sipped tea from a kulhad for the first time when she visited India last year. “The experience of drinking tea from an earthen cup and tossing it without any guilt offered a pleasure that is hard to quantify,” says the designer,who has come up with the ‘pi ke phut’ cups. Her design idea was to embed the cups with seeds of carrot,rocket salad and parsley. Once they have been used,they need to be discarded to fulfill their potential.

“I saw how these traditional cups were being replaced with plastic cups,disrupting the cycle of earth,clay,cup,earth. I wanted to present an alternative view on the consumption culture; something that was beautiful,yet functional,” says Pascale. The new kulhad not only retains its earlier utility,but also provides a beautiful design-based solution.

At the Bombay Store,Fort,there are coasters with yellow taxis,notepads with women wearing big bindis,and keychains,trays,curtains,and table covers with images from the Indian streets. The humble chai tapri occupies a space here too. The typical image of the chaiwalla is captured on a fridge magnet. But for designer M K Gokul,niche stores in the country are going over-the-top with this imagery. “Yes,it was a brilliant idea,but now it’s overdone. These everyday images are bombarded in a very unconvincing tone. I am not sure if I want an ‘in-my-face’ imagery,” he says.