The five-month store, Gemklip, on CMR Road, HRBR Layout, is a little hard to find. Located in the basement, the store looks more like a room with various engineering marvels that can be incorporated into daily life. Like there is a tiny orange fish that can be used as a egg separator, a huge sharpener that you can use to create designs with carrots and a spiral cucumber peeler.
That is not all, there are puzzles, word games and cryptic calendars that you need to solve hanging over your head that would keep you busy. Even if you don’t intend to buy anything, the products keep you enamoured.
Gemklip was started by Shanavas MS, Bindu Shanavas and Gauthier Raguin. Gauthier is a designer form EDNA – France, who came to Bengaluru as an exchange student and has been “hooked to the city”.
Karnataka : Bengaluru : 19/11/2018 : Gemklip Design store at HRBR layout in Bengaluru on Monday 19 November 2018. Photo : Sudhakara Jain / The Hindu.
Different stuffing
There are many interesting products at Gemklip, like Stuff my toy, designed by Chloé Fruneau. “The idea is not to buy a stuffed toy, when you can stuff this one with unused single socks or anything you plan to throw. Called ‘Feed Fanny’, the hungry monster shaped bag can be filled with anything – stationery, scarves and more,” explains Bindu.
‘Jarry’, designed by Karthik Mahadevan is a product that aims at recycling used bottles and used pickle jars. This is a bottle holder that transforms a jam bottle into a trendy cup or a mug by slipping the bottle into the holder.
Karnataka : Bengaluru : 19/11/2018 : Gemklip Design store at HRBR layout in Bengaluru on Monday 19 November 2018. Photo : Sudhakara Jain / The Hindu.
One that really bowls you over is ‘Crypto – Innovative Wall Calendar’, designed by Bharath Raghunathan. At first glance it looks like a secret code, but hold your breath, as soon as you move the colourful magnets over the cryptic elements inside, the calendar comes alive with dates, month and the day.
Jumbo Gemklip, designed by Gauthier, can be used as key rings, bookmarks, curtain binders, to seal food packets and more.
Workshops galore
Shahnawaz adds that they also conduct workshops on Saturdays. “Here we teach design thinking, know what is in a product, advanced origami and also do product design for start-ups.”
“We make mechanical products and work with clients from medical fields too.”
Gemklip was born five years ago and sold products only on online platforms, till they started the brick-and-mortar store.
“We have two categories of people – designers and non designers. The latter too have ideas and we mentor them till their ideas become a reality,” explains Gauthier.
Shahnawaz adds that there are only three prerequisites to display your creations and designs at Gemklip – the product has to be simple, different and inspiring.
