Handmade Rakhis Taking Centre Stage

If you look around in any market place, all that you see are the colourful, glittering Rakhis, considered the thread of brother sister bond. It's a very beautiful thought where a sister ties this thread on her brother's hand and asks him to be by her side and protect her all her life.

Well, while on my research on what, the different designs artists have come up this year, I bumped upon really exquisite designs and would love to share them with you'll too.

Rakhis by Jugaad

Upcycled- For those looking for recycled upcycled products, like made for waster fabric and paper they should check Pure Ghee on their facebook page, Jaypore.com and Soulfulsaai too. One should also check the recycled fabric rakhis by Jugaad, on facebook.

Dolki Bead rakhis by Soulfulsaai

Bead Rakhis- This year we at Soulfulsaai, made it a point to make our own inhouse beads which could be used in the rakhis. We used techniques such as crochet and winding on wooden beads and further embellishing them with stones and seed beads. There are rakhis made using beads made of newspaper and ordinary paper and then coloured and
embellished. Check the rakhis on Jaypore.com.

Grandmas Garden on Hopscotch.in

Felt Rakhis are another big time favourite for kids rakhis. Many artists have explored felt in making these rakhis. I specially loved Oyester kids  and Grandmas Garden rakhis on Hopscotch.in . They were actually hand cut and hand stitched unlike others which were machine cut and stuck on.

image courtesy alibaba.com

Embroidered Rakhis- using traditional embroideries such as mirror work, zardozi, and bead work beautifula patches are created and then mounted on make unique rakhis. The rakhis made Shipra Nayyar via pinterest.

Pompom Rakhis by Soulfulsaai

Pompom Rakhis- Again being used since time immemorial, but again at Soulfulsaai we used pompoms with a touch of bling and they have been loved but all. The street markets are full of pompom rakhis though the basic ones.

Rakhis by Samoolam

Crochet rakhis- We at Soulfulsaai are know for our crochet products thus beside the crochet bead rakhis we also have zardozi rakhis, made with metallic thread and embellished with kundan and pearls. We also loved the rakhis on Jaypore.com made by Samoolam.




Quilling Rakhis is not a new concept, people have been designing different designs using thin sheets of paper. We at Soulfulsaai had made quilling rakhis last year too. What particularly caught my attention was this 3D TV design which was then later mounted to make it a rakhi that could be tied on to the wrist. Our hot selling rakhi this season was the favourite Minion.
These rakhis are available on firstcry.com and hopscotch.in

Just came across interesting rakhis using Bamboo Art and Dokra art, you can buy them on http://baayadesign.com/estore/rakhi-special.html

Since I'm an ardent fan of handmade products and would love to see more and more people appreciate and buy handmade products, I've written this blog. Please do share if you come across interesting handmade design.

Quilling is Therapeutic For Me..

I am not a very paper friendly person. Therefore, quilling was not something I took to, at the first instance. When I first introduced quilling Rakhis in Soulfulsaai product range, I had a good friend and fellow crafter Nikki Lad, make the designs for me. The response was encouraging. And the next year in 2014, before the festive season begun, I bought myself a quilling kit and took the leap.

I must mention here- Quilling is Therapeutic. Quilling is creating motifs using thin strips of paper rolling them and then shaping them individually and sticking them together to create the final motif.

Quilling is most popularly used in making flowers. And online there are some artist who have made magnificient designs using quilling flowers. Therefore the thought that came to mind was, how would and what would I do, to make something unique in this already explored art.

That when I used quilling to create articles other than flowers. Before I started making Rakhis, I made a few quilling items and used them in cards. The cards turned out damn unique and people loved them.

How delicate the papers are, equally delicately one needs to be when working on them. Quilling is time consuming but once you start, I doubt one would want to stop. But the task ahead of me was making 200 pcs of Rakhis phew!!... Because boutiques on sites like Hopscotch, the minimum quantity is very high.

Unlike when making other items, one could delegate them. But in quilling that was not possible. Thus every quilling rakhi made in our product range was made by me.

And when the boutique went live on Hopscotch in 2014, I was overwhelmed!! A complete sell out.



So now in 2015, when I was planning Rakhis, the challenge was, quilling rakhis but how to make them unique. That's when it struck, to add an alphabet element, because when it comes to kids, learning is their way of life and on the other hand one can pick the alphabets as per the name of the child.

So, while I'm quilling, the entire time spent is so rejuventing and satisfying. Thus the final product is not an outcome just for selling but has the vibrations of a happy soul in it.

Last year, we had around 300 Soulfulsaai rakhis being tied to brothers establishing the brother sister bond. We are hoping to cross 750 this year, including quilling and non quilling rakhis,

 The quilling designs that are a dedication to our childhood days are - Natraj Pencil, Cadbury Eclairs, the trending Minions, Vans and Jeeps a little boy's favourite play companion.

Presently, these rakhis are getting sold out on Firstcry.com and are going live on Hopscotch.in on Aug 15, 2015. On can buy directly form our fb page too.

I would conclude by saying if you are looking for some art form which is therapeutic too, definitely have a try at quilling and share your experiences.

Happy Rakshabandhan to all....

Quest to Make Something Unique

I'm approached by friends and clients with design suggestions. It's very thoughtful of them to think about me when they are looking around in the market or browsing and then sending me reference images of designs. Please do continue sending me reference images.

In the process of making something most unique involves and extensive search of existing designs. The fact that some design is available in the market is the reason I'm not making such designs.

When a particular design and pattern has been already created by a fellow artist discourages me to explore in that direction. However, it inspires me to work on some particular kind of trend that trending.

Here I would like to mention pompoms. I had worked on pompom designs around two years back and even for Diwali last year. The response was good. However, I didn't explore them much. But now again, since the trend has caught on well thought of working on some designs. Here is the first glimpse of pompom accessories of little girls. Pompoms have a very cute appeal. In the design, the pompoms add colour, the gota patti adds the glitter and pearls the soft charm.

Pompoms are readily available in the market in all traditional colours. But when we wish to make something in non traditional colours then the only resort is to make these pompoms by ourself. My maid helped me make some of the pompoms. There is a small unit which helps in making pompoms though it is a time taking process but the resulting pompoms are much better than the readymade ones.

The yarn used is acrylic baby wool, however if one wants to make large pompoms then using the normal or thicker yarn will help. There are much simpler ways to make pompoms at home, google it or pinterest helps.

We are planning a unique range of pompoms western jewellery kids with non traditional colours stay tuned. Till then let us make the most of the coming festivals with the pompom range of accessories.

I feel there is a dearth of good ethnic jewellery for little girls and thus have worked on hairclips, headchains, hairbands and bangles to begin with.

I'm particularly excited as some of these designs are debuting on firstcry.com hopscotch.in and Curious Village, Ludhiana store soon.

Do leave your comments on these designs. I'm waiting.........