Artists come together to promote sustainable lifestyle

Have you seen a lantern made of discarded audio cassettes and coasters made of old magazines? This expo held at Coimbatore recently was all about creating art from recycled and upcycled products. Around 35 artisans from different parts of the country, who specialized in using discarded products, came together with their art work for their first ever expo in the city.The event was the brainchild of sisters Mala and Sonia Dhawan, who are the founders of the NGO, A Hundred Hands, which promotes handmade arts and crafts.
An excited Mala tells us, “Coimbatore is a city of art aficionados. The idea of the expo is not only to promote art but also encourage traditional craftsmen to push their boundaries. In an attempt to make handmade works more relevant to the younger generation, artists have given a contemporary twist to their traditional work. We specialize in the concept, ‘Be gentle to the earth’. As part of that , we make special functional and zippered bags called Bum bags. These bags are entirely made of discarded jeans by the inmates of NIMHANS (National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences) in Bengaluru.” Sonia, adds, “There are tailors who specialize in making these bags. We have made use of every part of the jeans. Now we are mulling over a plan to make good use of the discarded zips as well.”
Jagadish C, who specializes in upcycled products, tells us, “While upcycling is reusing waste without destroying it in order to form something new, recycling involves breaking the product down. Upcycling is more energy efficient. Almost every product that we use at home can be reused in a new form.” Jagadish has on display lamps, lanterns, mirrors and other art works using discarded audio cassettes and camera film reels.
Amita Deshpande, who had come all the way from Pune, adds that the process of recycling and upcycling is not a cakewalk. “We deal with bags woven from shredded plastic. We first clean the plastic bags and dry them under the sun. We then cut them into pieces and roll on a traditional charkha and then stitch into handbags, office products and décor. We upcycle old denim to make several things like handles to products such as beach bag ; flex banners to make our labels by printing our logo on the back of banners. We use the foam obtained from interior products waste (for eg Sofa) to make protective padding for products such as laptop bags.”
While children were introduced to the concept Dirty Hands, where they were taught to create art using recyclable material, visitors had an enriching time exploring green options like coasters made of discarded newspapers and magazines, necklaces made of shredded paper, photo holders, hangers; beach mats and table runners made of banana fibres and natural colours and traditional art like filigree, wood carving and Mughal miniature paintings.