From décor, photo booth props, thumb print memory boards, designer wedding cards and corporate invites to specially customised gifts and funny postcards for special days, Pooja Haria has indulged in her passion for all things artsy. The founder of Confetti, a small online avenue for handcrafted products, Pooja caters to events such as bridal showers, baby showers, weddings (dessert table decor) and theme birthday parties, among other occasions. She takes orders through her Facebook page www.facebook.com/ confetti16).
“At Confetti, we ensure that all our products and services are tailored to represent ‘you’,” she says. “We are all about creating that magical atmosphere to make all your pictures look like a fairytale. Whether it is maternity shoots, save-the-date cards or baby photo shoots, we provide creative props that add life to your memories. We even customize them to a theme of the client’s choice. We provide these packages on rent.”
Pooja holds a business management degree and used to work as an assistant manager at a reputed company. While her job kept her busy, Pooja began to spend every bit of her free time creating new products that weren’t available in the market or tweaking the ones available to suit her personal style. She says: “It’s only when people started enquiring where they could buy the same that I started making them for others. I conceptualised Confetti as a means to bring my imagination to life and make my handcrafted products available for everyone to purchase.”
Making that career shift was no easy task for her. “Society looks at art as more of a hobby than a justifiable business. When I decided to quit my job and take up Confetti full time, I was met with a lot of doubt from those around me. They related a corporate job to financial stability, and I was often told that my ‘hobby’ won’t make ends meet. I started freelancing as a content writer to raise funds to invest into my business. After nearly two years, the results showed and now I can proudly say I have converted every single one of these folk into firm believers.”
Confetti is almost three years old. “Confetti is my baby. Doing something I love, every single day of my life, brings me immense happiness and that positivity is reflected through my products.” On the flipside, she finds, “twenty-four hours a day are just not enough! Time probably plays the biggest constraint, there are so many new ideas I want to introduce and just not enough time to work on them all. Managing my time efficiently is something I’m still learning.”
For someone who cannot imagine a world without art, Pooja says: “I want to start an art abandonment initiative in Bangalore, to enable everyone to share their medium of expression by abandoning pieces of art for a random stranger to find and spread some kindness. This initiative is already popular in other parts of the world. I also have plans for the development of a new product which will harmonise ideas from art and technology to create commercial web space for budding artists to showcase and sell their products online. Someday, I also hope to write and illustrate a children’s book.”
This column features those who choose to veer off the beaten track.
