Hyd-based artist blends art, utility to create unique handcrafted lamps
City-based artist Meghna's start-up Hastha, launched over a year ago, aims to merge art and utility and create artistic handcrafted table lamps that are exquisite pieces of art and also serve a utilitarian purpose.
By Newsmeter Network Published on 15 March 2021 11:44 AM GMT
Hyderabad: City-based artist Meghna's start-up Hastha, launched over a year ago, aims to merge art and utility and create artistic handcrafted table lamps that are exquisite pieces of art and also serve a utilitarian purpose.
Meghna gave up her 17-year-long career as an HR professional for an MNC to follow her calling as an artist and set up Hastha (which means hands). Hastha works with traditional Indian art forms and uses leather, silk, and handmade paper to create unique table lamps.
"The front panel of the lamp is made of leather while the sides are either silk or handmade paper. We will try and incorporate more Indian art forms soon. The traditional paintings on the lampshades are done by artists while I do the craftwork," Meghna, a mother of a 10-year-old daughter, explained.
She exhibited her handcrafted table lamps at a recently-concluded Business Women Expo jointly organized by Hitex and COWE.
The lamps are painted in the four traditional styles of Madhubani, Tholu Bommalu, Patachitra, and Kalamkari. Madhubani is a style of painting practiced in India. The painting is done with a variety of tools, including fingers, twigs, brushes, nib-pens, and matchsticks and uses natural dyes and pigments. Tholu Bommalu is a shadow puppet theatre tradition of Andhra Pradesh that pass through the villages entertaining people while Patachitra is a traditional, cloth-based scroll painting based in the eastern Indian states of Odisha and West Bengal.
Meghna believes that art can flourish if it is fused with daily household utility items. She believes that her handcrafted lamps will light up the home not just with light but with art. They also serve a purpose and are used in day-to-day life. This, Meghna believes, will help traditional art forms flourish and also promote a dying art.
"My idea is to increase the utility of art form. We may not use table lamps during the day but they will remain as a small piece of art. At night when we switch them on, the art form is projected," she says, adding that every corner of the house or office has a table and every table needs a lamp. "Why not have an artistic lamp that not only looks good but also promotes an age-old art," she says.
About her journey as an "artpreneur", Meghna says, "My journey of one-and-a-half-years was difficult but there was also a lot of encouragement. People liked the idea and my work gives me satisfaction."
She plans to launch her product online in the next couple of months.
