You have seen kitchenware from coconut shells. Maybe even jewellery. But have you seen faces etched onto coconut shells? Or theme-based gifts replete with mini-worlds created out of coconut shells? Anju and her husband Anandamadhavan has been remodelling the ubiquitous shells into enigmatic figurines and turning them into handmade gifts. At their venture ‘Mr.and.Mrs.Crafters’, it is all about sustainability and upcycling the refuse.
The duo creates the impossible from waste and is pioneering an organic, eco-friendly, sustainable venture. It all started when they created a gift out of coconut shells for Anju’s father.
“The gift garnered much attention and people wondered how it was possible to create such figurines out of coconut shells. Orders kept coming in and that’s how it began,” says Anju. While she ideates and designs, her husband Anandamadhavan carves the artistry onto the coconut shells.
The duo sells theme-based gifts, photo frames, miniatures, decors, keychains, jewellery, and handmade gifts. “Utensils and jewellery are common. We wanted to create something unique and that’s how the theme-based gift idea was born,” says Anju who belongs to Tirur. So, the duo carves faces onto the shells and turns the mundane coconut into gift ideas.
Anju found her knack for crafting while whiling away after her delivery. What began as paper crafting then turned into a full-fledged venture. “Coconut shells have their own limitations. You get it only in a set shape. It doesn’t have much height and width. So, you need to work around these limitations. And that is the interesting part,” quips Anju. Be it faces or scaled-down versions of animals, no stone is left unturned by the duo while crafting wonders from empty shells.
Everything is handcrafted, says Anju. “I am always passionate about handmade articles. There is a uniqueness to these gifts than store-bought items and it represents the person we are gifting them to,” says Anju, who lives with her husband in Erode. The idea to develop it into a venture was started when the pandemic outbreak hit the country.
The raw material is collected from the farm of the duo. “There are a lot of coconut shells lying about and all we need to do is collect them and create something out of it. It is about upcycling and reducing waste. There is no investment in raw materials,” says Anju. The range of prices for articles starts from Rs 200 to Rs 7,000.