Shakiraaz - (Featured Homeware Products)

When feminine aesthetic gets infused with traditional glam and when self-directed observation and exploration take a leap,  a home ware brand like "Shakiraaz" is built. Shakiraaz has made that brilliant name by blending outstanding meticulous skills with an elegant projects imbued with great attention to detail and pride in home decor accessories. Captivating combinations with handmade designs and personalized prints fashions the space at Shakiraaz.   

Just because every successful story begins with a carefully devised past, having admired by Shakira's body of work, with that extra little zest, I reached out the lady Shakira herself to know few tricks of her trade.  

Shakira traces her passion of art since early years, where she used to draw, sketch and paint inspired by both of her parents’ amateur drawings. Her eyes still lit well up at the memory of recalling her mom’s days of styling vignettes and photographing from where she picked up the interest in home wares and décor. Fueling her interest by building a remarkable educational degree in textile designing, Shakira took a nosedive to pursue her passion and strike out a new path by opening her brand “Shakiraaz”.

It’s not a secret that being in a creative environment breads creativity. Shakira defines the initial moment of her business before she excelled the brand in her words:
"I actually started my business by hand painting designs each one off & exclusive on cushions, bags, scarves. Apart from friends and family, exhibiting my products in small galleries kick started my brand. Putting hours as an apparel textile designer for children's apparel coupled with my hand done work strengthen a lot to further my brand as well.”

Start-up comes with lots of uncertainties but giving never crossed her mind. She redrew boundaries of work and home when she welcomed her daughter. Shakira adds in her cautinary note about her success mantra:
"The only thing that has brought some success is my hard work and prioritising.....sometimes for a home based business your house work piles up and  you need to get to it...but setting the priorities with a sense of calm focus has helped everything fall into spaces.. Immense support from my husband has also helped in this; I could not do it without him! My husband is the one who put together a printing table for me (Bless him) and since then I am on a creative roll and I did not have to look back."

Shakiraaz design strategy focuses on strong shapes and patterns. Her lavish and feminine aesthetic has shaped the space with personalized designs and print textiles. Shakira crackles proudly about her design strategies:

"At Shakiraaz, I design blocks by hand or using the computer and get them handcrafted by Indian artisans. Each block is an aftermath of my own design. Hand screen printing is also a part of my designs in my studio. “Shakiraaz” home ware brand only practices on ecofriendly dyes with linen and cotton materials for most of the products. Art prints on watercolor is something we recently launched which illustrates my love of tribal design and fondness of succulents and cactus, is available now online."

Constant craving for creativeness and change has made Shakira source few of her designs from India as well. Though, expertise of running on an ethos of creating everything handmade and leaving a good carbon footprint echoes in Shakiraaz merchandises. Full proof formula of no mass creation and only handmade and handcrafted production is well served at Shakiraaz.

Delicious designs, pleasing patterns and yummy colors grace the work of a talented lady. Tending her own unique muse, she nurtured her creative spirit and built a remarkable brand name. As we conclude today's post, we wish "Shakiraaz" much more growth ahead along with warm thanks for letting us take a deep dive in her mushrooming brand. You may connect on her Instagram page here, place an order from her online store here and visit her itsy store here.

Until we meet again, stay connected, toodles!

(All Images: Shakiraaz)

Heirloom Haveli - (Kinnari Panikar's Ahmedabad residence)

Tucked away in a chaotic and crowded city of Ahmedabad, Gujarat is a slice of heaven of Kinnari Panikar & John Panikar. A radiantly dressed “Garvi Gujaratan” lady, swaying away on the zula blew me away. An awe inspiring story of textile designer Kinnari Panikar, who stretched every step and took the plunge to save her heirloom family home is remarkable.  

 

With firm faith, conservationist and textile designer Kinnari Panikar exempted her 25 years of USA life for a maternal home which upholds personal value for her. In pursuance of a herculean task of nurturing and preserving 365- year old home, Kinnari has been at top of the ladder for cultivating pride of past.

After affirming hands on haveli, paying three times the asking price, the daunting task of re-establishing haveli was brilliantly achieved by throwing in traditional and contemporary artistic niceties. Architectural quirks were kept intact by just giving smart touches attuned to the ambiances to meticulously restore the haveli to its original splendor. "Mata ni pachedi” (Kalamkari of Gujarat) work, anchoring the bold color scheme, was splashed down on the courtyard wall to bring the spirituality with an artistic twist.

 

The kitchen space allowed layering the unusual collection of Kinnari’s loot of utensils from chor bazaar & flea market. Vessels with interesting shape and history are making Kinnari’s kitchen a fashionable playground of unique and timeless pieces.

Pratima, the debuted name of the haveli, is the only property surrounded with green patch which Kinnari fervently maintains by inserting local plants such as madhumalti and bougainvillea which can survive in exotic sunshine of hot Ahmedabad.

Determined to force a fresh start in her decaying ancestral home, Kinnari has kept the heritage intact by promoting this project. Touched deeply by the past, this haveli is breathing again which now represents a story of a tangible bygone era. 

To chew more on this story you may visit here. And until we meet again, stay connected, toodles.

Image Courtesy: AD

Spring Spin

Spring is taking forever to wake up from hibernation, and resultantly with snow in April and drop in mercury made us fear heading back to winterization instead springify our home. Though, after going through fair share of tough times, we came a long way. Mr. Sun is striking out to fill us in with our much needed dose of sunshine, and birds are crooning back with their soul soothing tweets in our ravine.

Our family room, the hot spot of our family, is all spring ready and humming with spring like warmth indoors. After an enforced seasonal swap of accessories, the room is now breathing new spring life. So, come on in, visit our ever evolving space where our devoted family actions yield with jumping feet and wiggling seats. 

 

With spring fever, my aesthetic sensibilities seem to broaden and deepen. Following the tone of comfort and repose, the room is fairly organized and fairly neat with the appeal of newly done. This year, spring spin is welcomed by softer hues of yellows and greens. Bulky, fluffy pillows and throws are hauled away by propping in these lighter ones in service. Pop of red and orange blends in perfectly with my palette.

Artfully placed vignettes of accessories are steering the room where any talk graciously furthers to my décor when we have company.
 
This room also shares a close relationship with the natural environment as our bay windows are unadorned in order to foster our ravine backyard pleasure where many mornings are spent before we leave for the whirl of our day’s engagement and evenings find us here as we watch the sun set over.

The ever flowing flow of sun light suits the rhythms and rituals of our activities in this room. And I love how sunshine filtering through those windows infuses the room with luminous glow.

Little glitz and glamour with our "zula Ganesha" is perfectly escorting Tulips to hasten the transition easily on my ottoman, which is pressed in service as a coffee table in the room. 

From time to time, I change my perspective by changing and rearranging with the seasonal scheme to blend beautifully with our surroundings. This gentle prod to put a spring in our step will let us easily tackle the happiest times of spring, be it by bonding over a chess game on sunny weekends or flipping through our memorabilia at the dusk. Signing out wishing you all happy spring! Stay connected for more décor sagas on Facebook or Instagram, toodles!

Gaatha - A tale of crafts (Featured e-shop)

Gaatha, an online brand long associated with iconic Indian inspired designs and built on the idea of persevering disappearing art and craft of Indian heritage is what we are cheering today via snippets of their collective pursuit.

Well thought out ethics, strong sense of styling of products reflecting traditional charm, and above all promoting the efforts of artisans that went in making that one of kind artefact shows how team Gaatha has beautifully capitulated cultural preservation.  

 

Amazed by the rich detail on their website, I reached out to Gaatha to find more about some exclusive facts and inside scoop. Led by imaginative forbearers and visionaries with strong social conscience, Gaatha holds committed team of 8 people at the moment, of which three are the founding members viz. all Alumni  of National Institute of design, Ahmedabad . One team member is a software engineer from reputed engineering college of India. One applied artist, graphic designer and a couple of content developers.  Gaatha also keep collaborating with volunteers, researchers and photographers who help adding research volume into their craft documentation on project/freelance basis. 

When elements like passion, mindset and dedication to fortify local crafts coalesced in a unique and artistic way, Gaatha was germinated. As termed out by team Gaatha:

 

Passion for handicrafts was seeded while doing academic research under Prof. M.P.Ranjan and Aditi Ranjan at the National Institute of Design (NID). We (the core team) learnt how many beautiful traditional Indian crafts are fighting for survival today. When a craft dies, we not only lose the time-tested techniques but we also lose generations of faith and wisdom that went into making that object.

To uplift the pride and prosperity of the wearing away Indian legacy of handicraft, Gaatha is reinstating that faith and respect via their fruitful marketing prowess. As coined out by team Gaatha:

Gaatha was originally created for researching and documenting Indian craft clusters and heritage which are experiencing rapid erosion. However, we learnt from artisans themselves that need was not to do research alone but to restore ‘pride and commercial opportunity’ in their ecosystem. Today Gaatha thus aims to bring the lost respect and wealth back to these heirloom artisanal clusters. 

In an effort, Gaatha not only connects with artisans from far-flung villages, but also shares visual journey of their products. Gaatha affirms:

As Indian crafts are so varied, so is our inventory; ranging from extremely sophisticated and high end products like Kashmir Pashmina shawls, Gold Theva jewelry to utility based items like kitchenware but one thing that runs common to everything we keep at Gaatha store is the quality and good aesthetics.

Chiefly motivated by Indian origins, Gaatha, since last three years, has only been doing research and documentation of various crafts across India. They started e-commerce portal a couple of months ago. Gaatha intends to cover everything from pottery to ship making and even the simple daily utility-based crafts such as rope or broom making.

Sky is the limit when you shop Gaatha, as they have hundreds of items through their e-commerce platform from the deepest alcoves of vibrant India. So, what are you waiting for, head straight to their website here and bring a handmade Indian vibe to spiff up your home by one of a kind piece from Gaatha. Like Gaatha's facebook page or follow their fancy feeds on Instagram.

Until we meet again, stay connected on Facebook page or Instagram feed of Pinkz Passion, toodles!

(Image courtesy: Gaatha)

 

 

 

Tulip Touches!

You are familiar with my décor chronicles now, one treat I always have is fresh flowers in my décor. Nothing puts a shine on my face like flowers; their captivating presence spreads a childlike glee within me.  Decorating trends come and go but flowers will always be a hot look to suit any style.

                                 

There are quite a few flowers which tick me off but tulips are something I have to add in my décor as soon as I spot them at the florist, they unavoidably land in my shopping cart (of course after lots of struggling to pick the perfect colour)  

With warmer days approaching,  image that spring to my mind is only tulip. Let me walk you through some luxe touches of tulips around our home. These carefully constructed vignettes are reflecting the spirit of spring, which seems like a dream after yesterday’s massive snow storm that completely changed the direction of Mother Nature’s idea of transporting spring here. Outside is still chilly and damp but inside everywhere ravishing tulips are brightening up our rooms capturing the ethereal beauty of spring.

My compulsion to add brass in any vignette and fondness of tulip emanates warmth on this eye catching display on my coffee table affirming flower power can never go wrong.

 

Speeding up spring by infusing tulips in every corner. Along with flowers, personal treasures like this German silver pot links you to a visual story. A proud possession like this brings soul to any room which is very hard to feel or form when you start everything from scratch. 

Take a step back and run an eye on what you already own to attire your flowers. Flatter the style by carrying their glow in beyond a standard vase. Let your imagination flow and carry their glow in something unexpected. 

Extraordinary blooms like tulips festoon everything with ease on this globally hallmarked vignette. Beautifully compilation of warm and cool colors is cementing in every sense. Corner like this, melts away all our fatigue when we surrender ourselves and catch a breath after hitting the rough day.  

Though we are pretty much blanketed in snow for now, so, you can see spring, you can smell spring and you can feel spring phrase seems completely nonviable. For now, I am hugging the possibilities of spring and refocusing my attention on positive moodiness of this post. Hope you all are inspired to bring little spring touches around your space and brighten your home with some tossed in warmth of tulips. Until we meet again, stay connected on Facebook or catch my feeds on Instagram or plug in your email address and subscribe for all future posts, toodles! 

P.S. If you are an avid tulip lover like me, you may lead your read right here for more tulip factoids.

Hello April!

Wondering what's on Pink'z radar this month? Weeding out the garden, dusting off the patio, and more of that adventure being closer to Mother Nature with taking spring strolls are already on agenda this month as we usher in long awaited spring life.
Another busy week passed by once brood head off to their routine after spring break and we are still left with a little bit hangover of Holi chaos and all the partying. We neither bound this year’s festivity to our virtual wishes nor let the unfaithful weather of Toronto ruin our day, instead we gambled and we dot on the festival in “Do me a favor, let’s play Holi” style with a very large crowd ;) 

On a weather eye, these days, we are crawling out of the bed with chirps and opening windows to the most peaceful sight of our ravine backyard, which definitely is one of the best pleasures we appreciate during this transition of the year. Sun dancing overhead has started creating sun glitters on the distant rolling pond that really reflects the spirit of spring. Quacking stream of ducks and squawking of seagulls echo that spring is finally knocking at our door. Not to forget those wild life guests who make their occasional visit in our backyard making our younger one to storm out himself to get their glimpse. Glad to have our house rooted in nature and sometimes I wonder why I waited so long to get convinced residing so close to nature.

With spring on our way, filling this month's blog dose with few picture heavy colorful posts, reflecting the essence of spring around our home. Along with Tulip touches, a peek in our family room, which is ready to bask in the buttery sunshine, is outlined here on the blog. Moreover, you will encounter with our usual travel tale and a featured product segment. 

Pretty soon, Pinkz Passion will be reaching to a new milestone of 100th post and my mind is racing for that one of a kind post to celebrate but don't want to spoil the surprise yet, so, you stay connected to recharge your inspiration engine with a busy lined up posts until 'April showers bring you flowers', till then, stay connected, toodles!