#10: Products with a soul

In less than a year, SaiVijaya Naidu’s venture SoulfulSaai has taken off, giving her a much needed boost. From conceptualizing to designing, she does it all. She has sold her products on more than 6 websites, and continues to do so. Boasting a Post Graduate degree in Textiles n Clothing from the Mumbai University, she also happens to be a gold medalist and the university topper. She was inclined towards art, right from school days, so she eventually convinced her parents to let her take up Textiles Designing as opposed to being a typical doctor or engineer. “Loaded with all the knowledge from my degree, I even worked as a lecturer for a year in my own college, but got bored soon, as I was teaching exactly what I had learnt, ie. too much of theoretical knowledge. I discontinued and took up writing. I wrote on fashion and textiles which I thoroughly enjoyed, but fate had a different course for me. The erratic schedules and late nights didn't go well with my family so I quit the job, and did freelancing instead. But that too wasn't motivating. So I ended up spending time online, made new friends Facebook and Twitter, and even blogging a bit,” shares Saai.

Soulfulsaai was actually her Twitter-handle, which eventually gave birth to her brand. Nandita Iyer, a fellow food blogger, suggested Saai that she checks Etsy.com. Well, that was it. Once she took this plunge, she pledged that she would swim the Atlantic. “In the beginning I surfed aimlessly. But then I did realize  that of all the products I surfed, I liked the segment on hair accessories. I immediately went to the nearby malls to check what type of hair accessories was sold and their price range. Later I decided to check the process of opening a shop on Etsy.com, and realized it was much simpler than opening a bank account!” exclaims Naidu.

After a while Saai realized that Etsy catered mainly to international clients, and she wanted to make a mark in her homeland too. That’s where she decided to open up a shop on Craftsvilla.com. Slowly, she spread her wings, and now sells her products on websites like Itshandmade.in, Shopick.com, Unwrapindia.com etc.

But the path she decided to take had its own pros and cons. “Frankly, every moment in the process of building Soulfulsaai has been eventful. As it was a relatively unthreaded path, any decision I made, I had to be ready for success or failure. I had my own share of disappointments. The first exhibition I had was a disaster. The reasons were numerous, but I sure learnt a lot from it,” shares Saai. On the brighter side, she is happy to be her own boss!

“I don’t only want people to benefit from Soulfulsaai, but I also want to create awareness about my brand, unlike the mass-produced products that lack personal touch. Today I am confident that there is a demand for my products because I use techniques like crochet, beading, macrame, soutache, and fabric flowers. While on the other hand, there are women who are struggling to earn a decent living. If I could bring these two things together, I would be happy,” says Saai.

#9: Dollops of love for your little one!

Women are known to multi-task. Meet Mariam Noronha, who juggles the roles between that of a teacher, blogger, freelance writer, artist, designer, an avid crafter and the owner of Dollops of Sunshine. “In one word, I’m a maverick!” she says.

Mariam, already MA in Commerce, is currently working towards completion of her Doctoral thesis. “Currently I teach Commerce and Management to under graduate students. I have worked as a freelance writer for over 6 years now, and that stint includes various genres of writing such as fiction, travel and web content development. I began blogging professionally over 2 years ago. I own and manage a blog called TheOneOfAKindPreneur that is about unique and custom-made businesses. Besides that, I write for a number of business blogs based out of Asia, Europe and Canada and also on the Indian social media scenario for SocialSamosa,” she shares.

Mariam has always loved creative pursuits. She dabbles in calligraphy, water-colours, one stroke painting, doodling and crochet. “I love colours and creating hand-made products gives me a lot of satisfaction. Designing hand-painted home decor, kids’ apparel and products is something I have begun enjoying in the last one year,” she adds.

Dollops of Sunshine started out as a Facebook page where Mariam used to share (not sell) pictures of her hand-painted trays, cards, lamps, table mats etc. Always having enjoyed crochet, last year she came up with the idea to create some fun crochet designs for babies. “I discussed this with my friend Abida Khan (an avid crafter herself) who immediately appreciated the idea. So both of us discussed this idea, over a cup of tea. Eventually that led to creation of a small collection of hats and booties for babies. Our first batch of designs sold out in just 3 days and soon we had people asking us to do more!” she quips.

As far as inspiration goes, it was more about giving vent to their creative side while creating designs that are colourful, fun and different. It was about getting out there, and making a difference with hand-made goodness. Far from being a commercial venture Dollops of Sunshine is about taking crochet designs for kids, to another level.

“My job as a teacher and a writer allows me to touch many lives. That is the exciting part of it. But as a designer, every day comes with new possibilities, more inspiration, loads of colour and lots to look forward to,” she elaborates.

In less than a year they have received a lot of appreciation and love from people. Dollops of Sunshine work towards adding a bucket full of happiness to the lives of babies and of course their mothers. “When people write in and say ‘We love your work’, or ‘I picked 15 pairs of DOS booties because I didn’t want to let any design go’ these things cannot be equated with money. The love and appreciation people have shown, is truly amazing. Everyone wants a piece of sunshine and we couldn’t ask for more. God has been very kind,” she shares.

Ask about what she has in store for the future, Mariam says, “It is too early to tell. The web has truly empowered people and Indian design too has truly come off age.  Vibrant Indian brands are filling up the web with their work that can be genuinely appreciated. But for us, the journey has just begun!”