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In an era when organic and eco-friendly products are in hot demand, coir is making its case to be the new fibre of choice. You can get an amazing range of products including even floor tiles and slippers in coir.
But 45-year-old coir artist K.R. Raghu has gone one step further. He turns out smart wall art pieces from the humble fibre. And his works have found pride of place in celebrity homes — he even recently presented a commissioned coir portrait of Pratibha Patil to the President herself.
For 2D portraits, Raghu prepares a sand base on the wooden canvas and then glues coir matting on to it, as in the Taj Mahal. And when he has to give a light-and-shadow shading, he puts together coir that comes in various hues for the effect. For 3D portraits on the other hand (the lion), he uses coir husk instead of matting against the sand texture that has been painted black.
Surprisingly, Raghu works and retails single-handedly from his home in Ernakulam, Kerala, which also doubles as his studio. “Depending on the size of the pieces, that range from 1.5ft by 2ft to 6ft by 4ft, it takes me three to five days to complete each work,” adds Raghu, who began his career as a layout artist and illustrator in a Malayalam children’s magazine called Poombatta (it means butterfly) at 20. After spending eight years in the industry, he joined an ad agency in Kochi called Kerala Publicity Bureau as a layout and illustration artist. During his stint there, he got the idea of creating objects in coir.
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He wasn’t the first one in the family to come up with the idea. Says Raghu: “A cousin of mine used to make small things with coir as a hobby and he inspired me to do something like this. In no time I developed these 3D and 2D coir craft pieces and soon my work started to get noticed and I got associated with National Coir Research and Management Institute, Thiruvananthapuram. They commissioned me to create coir artworks,” says Raghu. He is now a full-time artist and earns his livelihood from this skill that’s made him especially popular with the tourists who visit Kerala.
His creations are now being exported to Germany, Singapore and even the US and he sources raw materials from Foam Mattings (India) Limited, a government-owned company in Alleppey. Raghu has been invited to exhibit his art at Delhi’s Pragati Maidan trade shows and at the recently held Coir Kerala 2012, an international coir expo organised by the Department of Coir Development, Government of Kerala.
“My aim is to participate in more art exhibitions, especially those in the West,” says Raghu.
Trends
Coir is quite popular in home interiors these days and is rapidly replacing wood and concrete. Being a hotseller in the international market, these artworks made up of natural fibre, sand and organic glue are eco-friendly and ethnic designs account for their popularity in the West.
“The ones with the Taj Mahal and tiger face are quite popular in Singapore and the West respectively,” says Raghu, adding that a lot of tourists pick them up.
Products
On offer are portraits of Mother Teresa, a 2D Taj Mahal and a brightly painted falcon. The artist also accepts orders to make portraits of famous personalities, especially politicians. The prices for his creations range from Rs 8,000 to Rs 23,000.
So, pick a coir Ganesha for Rs 23,000 or go for pieces depicting a Kathakali head, tiger and lion heads or portraits of Gandhi — all priced at Rs 10,000.
