It has been said that travel changes us and we all know that marriage does too! Interior designer and architect, Sandhya Vaidyanathan, who hails from Dubai, is one to vouch for that. Founder of Masala Popsicles, an artsy enterprise she set up in 2009 when she moved to Bengaluru to reside with her husband, this creative entrepreneur started out when Facebook wasn’t as effective for small businesses as it is today. “My family friends saw the work I was doing and told me to start selling my products on a bigger platform and that's how Masala Popsicles came into being,” she narrates.
At Masala Popsicles, Sandhya started out with terracotta painting and making her own air-dried clay Ganeshas. She now creates only customised craft projects that include name boards, trays, coasters, bottle lamps, jewellery boxes, kettles, clocks, etc. She also takes on orders for fabric painting.
All of Sandhya’s products are personally hand painted by her. “I give a good gap of a week or two between every project so that I do justice to every order.”
Speaking of her beginnings, she recounts: “Initially it was a difficult change to make. Coming to a new country and new city was challenging enough. And then when I decided on what I wanted to do here, I didn’t know where to source raw materials from or which courier service to sign up with. Initially some of my terracotta projects would break and that’s when I understood more about packaging and shipping. I’ve definitely come a long way since.”
Sandhya has been in the art business for a while now but she finds “People don't understand that making a handcrafted product takes a lot of time and effort. Often, even getting payments on time are an issue. But I’m hopeful that things will change for the better.”
Since all her products are customised according to her clients’ requirements, prices depend upon the amount and intricacy of work involved.
Despite Masala Popsicles progressing the way it is, Sandhya says: “I prefer to keep my business small and that helps with my relationship with my clients. When a project reaches completion, we become friends. Also, since I don’t mass manufacture or retail with any website, most orders come through my Facebook page ( >www.facebook.com/MasalaPopsicles ) and of course by word of mouth.”
