PROFILE

It was the birds and the bees that brought Mukta Sharma and Rajat Lodha together. The two were arguing over the bead-encrusted designs of moths, bees and butterflies to create lamps, key rings and necklaces at design studio Kanhai, when they realised that they had loads in common.

Sharma, a Delhi girl and a professional photographer had worked with photographer Ashok Kochhar in the early part of her career between 1997 and 2001. She then turned to freelancing. In 2005 she joined Kavita Dutta, an NID graduate who started Kanhai in 1992. The brand specialised in home accessories made with beads and this gave Sharma the chance to get creative.

Lodha, an engineer from Rajasthan, too joined Kanhai for a similar reason in 2006. But when Dutta moved to Goa in 2007, it wasn’t possible for her to shift the business since Kanhai relied on manpower from Delhi’s neighbouring areas. She bequeathed it to Sharma and Lodha and over the years, they’ve added a number of new lines like jewellery and lights. The couple tied the knot last year.

The brand’s speciality lies in creating home accessories, lamps and jewellery with brass and steel wires and hand-made glass and acrylic beads, ribbons and threads. So, beaded butterflies flutter in 50 shapes and in 15 different colours on necklaces, key rings and bookmarks. There are bead napkin-rings while more beads hang down on lamps like vines.

Their latest collection is heavy on ribbons, threads and crochet-work. Votives have been created with steel rods, vibrant threads and acrylic flowers. A new table lamp uses ribbons and threads in a spider web design.

The beads are manufactured in the villages of Uttar Pradesh by nearly 300 artisans. “They sit before furnaces heated to 300°C to 400°C creating the beads,” says Lodha. Once the beads are ready, the products are assembled at their Chirag Delhi workshop by 12 workers.

The beads come in a riot of colours and shapes: oblong, flat, oval and round. Often, selecting the right beads for a product becomes painstaking. Says Lodha: “It took us over two months to get the perfectly-shaped beads for a ladybird paperweight.”

While the couple designs the products, students from design schools like NIFT, Delhi, often intern with them. This infuses a fresh perspective into their work. They also designed the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) booths for the 2007 and 2008 Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week.

Initially, the brand was only exporting its products to Europe, the US and Australia. “But four years ago a home accessories store persuaded us to retail with them,” recalls Sharma. Subsequently, Kanhai travelled to Calcutta (available at Oxford Bookstore outlets), Bangalore, Chennai, Goa, Pune, Mumbai, Agra, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad where it’s sold through different retailers.

TRENDS

“People are open to buying quirky products as gifts,” says Lodha. This is giving designers the chance to experiment and get creative.

“The kitschy look is in especially on the home front,” says Sharma. Accessories in bright colours are popular, especially those that use lots of beads, crochet-work, ribbons and threads. Moreover, handmade products are gaining ground as opposed to mass- produced machine-made products.

PRODUCTS

A ball-light with multi-coloured butterflies and flowers strung on a steel-wire frame is a Kanhai showstopper. It’s fitted with small lights inside that, when switched on, convert it into a colourful, glittering piece. The light is tagged at Rs 5,600 for the smallest, Rs 7,500 for the medium and Rs 9,800 for the biggest.

Napkin-rings in bright colours and myriad designs are priced between Rs 800 and Rs 1,000 (for six). The simpler ones have colourful, small beads woven into a ring, while others have beaded butterflies attached to them.

Funky paperweights come in many shapes. There’s a ladybird crafted out of two big black beads and smaller red ones threaded into a brass wire. Meanwhile, bookmarks and jooda-pins, designed with dragonflies or butterflies attached to thin steel rods, are fast sellers. These are priced upwards of Rs 150.

A spider web lamp is a woven piece made by using shaded ribbons and steel wires. It took the designers several months to get the design right. This can be yours for Rs 3,100. Then, wine charms, to be looped to the stems of wine glasses for a bit of drama, are especially popular with Delhi’s expat community. Priced at Rs 300 for a box of six, these charms have colourful beads strung on spiral wires with bigger beads or even acrylic flowers attached at the ends.

Photographs by Jagan Negi