When 20- year-old Lois Priscilla laid hands on a piece of wornout fabric, she saw what most people would fail to see — its potential to be a fashion statement. Putting needle and thread to good use, she created a perfectly usable handbag out of the fabric. And in the process, she had found her niche. Since then, and it has been an adventure of trial and error. Unlike most twenty-year-olds, she didn’t want to follow the conventional path and decided to explore a sector that most people didn’t pay much attention to, which is recycled craft.
She plays with old magazines paint, brushes hot glue gun, nylon strings, geometric tools and lots of adhesives to create things out of neglected materials
She sees art in everyday materials. She not only utilises all the unused clothes in her closet but also those of her friends and family “I use cotton, corduroy and denim. Sometimes flannel, just for aesthetic reasons. I ask my friends and relatives to give me things they want to get rid of,” says Lois, an English major and an aspiring voice-over artiste.
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Ask her how did it all start and she would say, “As a little girl, I’ve always liked to make new things. Since I am an only child, creativity was my only company.”
Apart from handbags, Lois also makes paper bags, boxes, wristbands and beads.
She says her friends are her biggest critics. “They don’t hesitate to tell me if something looks bad. They help me improve upon my craft.
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A resident of Anna Nagar, Lois, uses her talent to help raise funds that provide food and clothing to the underprivileged through fundraisers hosted by her local church. She never wanted to make a business out of her craft, but now she isconsidering the idea looking at the popularity of her products among friends and family.
However, she plans to continue with education and work part-time. “I plan on doing my MPhil and possibly my PhD too in English,” she says.
Lois wants people to realise that the world is in dire need of a reality check when it comes to recycling. “We need to protect the planet we live in. If we don’t, who else will?”