Recycle spin

Elephant dung,banana fibre,old wine bottles,newspapers and shredded prints can help make your home get chic

Elephant dung,banana fibre,old wine bottles,newspapers and shredded prints can help make your home get chic
A few years ago,Mahima Mehra kept dung at the same disrespectable distance everyone does. But one visit to Jaipur left Mehra with a brainwave that expanded into Haathi Chaap,a company that makes handmade paper from elephant dung and has clients across India and overseas. Mehra figures among several designers who have taken to recycling to create stylish eco-friendly designs.

Yasmin Sethi,a Delhi-based 23-year-old,who studied product design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design,University of the Arts,London,for example,uses newspapers to create trendy furniture. I like exploring with traditional crafts and designs from across the world, she says. Her designs are utilitarian but chic and contemporary. The techniques that go into making the furniture or stunning paper lamps are trade secrets that Sethi has come up with after intensive research. Paper is easily one of the most beautiful textures to work with. We waste more paper every day than we probably waste water or electricity. I wanted to put all this to use, says Sethi.

A thought which Mehra also put to good use. I noticed that the fibre in dried dung looked exactly like the fibre from which we make handmade paper, says the Haathi Chaap owner. The dung undergoes a complicated process of several washes,treatment in salt water so that it doesn8217;t smell and is then mixed with cotton rags to make paper pulp. Our current place for manufacturing is Jaipur as we are working with the elephants at the Amer Fort. We will soon start making paper at Sadri,close to Udaipur. An organisation that works with camel herders is helping us. Weve already started making paper with camel poop, says Mehra. Her products include coasters,knick-knacks,game boards,carry bags to cards,photo albums and diaries.

Happily Unmarried,a Delhi-based design company,has no problems with reaching out to the young with their recycled products which have a wacky singledom-theme. From boring things like doormats and key holders to shot glasses we have injected irreverence into most things. But it also works being eco-friendly and creative. For apparel,we use vegetable dyes and vegetable block prints. We worked with the same idea for the Green Bottle Lamp which is made from old discarded wine bottles, says Rahul Anand of the company.

Agricultural and craft wastes also make for some fine art. Bangalore-based Jenny Pinto,after making TV commercials for 17 years,wanted to do something that connected her to the earth. I make paper the old-fashioned way. My raw materials are usually agricultural and craft waste fibres like banana,sisal,mulberry,various river grasses,pineapple and more, says Pinto,who makes home accessories and paper at her Bangalore studio.
The green wave is definitely hitting a high note in home décor.

POOP TIME
While dung is not something you want near you,these magnetic clocks of 4 diameter by Haathi Chaap could easily hoodwink their way to a cosy corner of your room. The clocks are made of elephant dung paper,come with magnets and can be stuck on your fridge or dresser.
Price: Rs 200

REAR VIEW
Made from handmade elephant dung coloured paper,the covers of these Haathi Chaap photo albums have been painted by Chitrakars from West Bengal. Chitrakars,a dying clan in Bengal,tell stories through music and paintings. Haathi Chaap also stocks calendars,notepads and small paintings made by the Chitrakars on dung paper.
The 6 x 14.75 albums cost Rs 550 each.
Haathi Chaap is available at the Design Studio,People Tree,The Shop,Tatsat in New Delhi; Either Or in Pune; Earthworm in Goa; The Madras Terrace House,Chennai; Industree,Bangalore.

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BOTTLE UP
Next time someone lectures you on the evils of drinking,the environment could be your best alibi.
Happily Unmarried makes bottle lamps out of discarded wine bottles.Sleek and perfectly tuned in to a singletons happy-go-lucky ways,the bottle lamp is an example of recycling with spunk.
Price: Rs 700 approximately

LIGHT HOUSE
The lamp,curiously called Spider by Pinto,could be a little slice of nature right in the centre of the glass and concrete structure you call home. Designed out of banana fibre paper painstakingly handmade by Pinto,the lamp is brought alive by the use of twigs. The delicate structure is juxtaposed with the crude beauty of the hand-cut piece of granite that holds it.

MAIL-a-PLANT
When you open the sealed envelope of this mail,the letter folds open into a small plant-holder that contains a porous seed envelope. As you water the seeds,they grow into a plant,thereby,giving a touch of life to the exchange between you and the sender. This idea of gifting is Yasmin Sethis answer to e-gifts. The folding technique here has been inspired by the origami tradition practiced in Japan.

NEWS LINE
Every newspaper has a limited shelf-life. And it makes for a perfect recycling example. Sethi tried to explore how a newspapers life can be extended with an artists touch. She uses rolls of newspaper got from the local kabadiwala,and makes cylinders of hand rolled newspaper. These cylinders are put together with a special technique to create furniture that could easily bear the weight of an adult human being of average weight.
Stool: Rs 1,900,Chair: Rs 2,800,Table: Rs 2,400,Love Seat: Rs 3,600

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SHRED SOME LIGHT
Reinvent the Lamp is made out of shredded office reports woven at the base through a wire frame. For all those who had kept office reports at an arms length from home,the lamp could be a refreshing change of sorts.
Price: Rs 3,100