Exactly a year ago Anugraha organised her first ever handicrafts workshop and just three people turned up. Now, at the age of 25, the Coimbatore based interior designer has her students conducting workshops on their own with some of them even exporting their handicrafts including handmade soaps to Taiwan. Ahead of her latest workshop series that starts on May 15 with a beginner’s level organic soap making workshop, she says, this time the series will include not just soap making classes but also workshops on screen printing, Ajrak block printing, dream catcher making, Shibori printing ( using the tie and dye) and Batik printing (using hot wax).
In the soap making workshop, learn to make cold process soaps using vegetable and fruit puree, soaps made of organic powders such as turmeric and sandalwood, soft bars, shampoo bars and more. “To promote a green way of living is why I started Akira, the label under which I conduct workshops,” says Anugraha who sticks on to using only organic materials and colours to make handicrafts but believes in her own ways to make things more creative. “We have very limited colour options as we stick to taking only organic dyes because of which most soaps we make come in lighter shades. However, in addition to carrots, beetroots and strawberries, I extract colours like bright orange from annatto seeds and dark brown from red sandalwood and try different designing methods such as the swirl technique on the soaps to make them more appealing”, says Anugraha whose students list comprises of ten year old school kids to 70-year old grandmothers.
Ask her what the best part about her workshops is and she will say it is the number of people she gets to meet. “The feedback I get from my students are amazing and taking classes for people of different age groups and backgrounds is a great learning experience”, shares Anugraha, who by the end of May is planning to launch her handmade soaps for sale under her label, Akira.
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