Dwaraka- A treasure trove of Kalamkari work

Here's another store tour, albeit not in Whitefield. This unassuming place nestled in Indiranagar/Thippasandra area caters solely to Kalamkari art work. It is a not-for-profit initiative to encourage and promote artisans trained in this ancient artwork. They do have an online store, but it is not quite functional. I got my chance last month to visit the place in person and get a feel of the products.

As evident, it is a visual treat to see this art work on such a variety of products, namely, wall art panels, lamp shades,sarees and kurtis, jewellery boxes, cushion covers, coasters and key-chains. You can also get the wall panels customized to the size and painting of your choice.

Pretty lamp shades

Decorative mirrors

Photo-frames

Nope, these curtains are part of the decor and not for sale

Lovely colours

Being a not-for-profit organization, the prices are also economical. So, for art connoisseurs, it is a definite must-visit.

Like what you see?

You can visit the store at:

Dwaraka

 

# 58/1-A, 4th Main Road, Hal 3rd Stage, Thippasandra, Bangalore, Karnataka 560075 ‎ Ph: 080 4153 2087

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The Spinning Wheel-a store tour

Falling in line with my intention to bring to light exclusive Home Decor stores around Whitefield area, here's another store tour. I had come across The Spinning Wheel many times- in the flea market and other exhibitions- and always thought to myself that I'd go back to them someday. And, boy! am I glad that finally I made to their store? You can bet a million bucks here.

The unique part about this store is that not only do they house exquisite art items procured from various places in India, but they also specialize in refurbishing old furniture. They add lovely embellishments like tile-work or painted art- and convert a drab looking piece into a style statement. So, if you are bored of your old dining table but do not want to spend a fortune on another or have sentiments attached to the current one, you know where to head.

The Store owner, Rakhi Mutreja, is a very enterprising lady with a lot of passion for the work she does and it really comes across when she talks about each of her piece in the store. When every art piece is handpicked, it becomes a lot more interesting because of the story and history attached to it, says Rakhi. They completed their first anniversary recently but are already running short of store space-something that is not surprising considering the kind of response/orders they are getting not only from Bangalore but other parts of the country as well.

Now, for the tour:

Aren't the camel ones unique?

Pretty door knobs

The weaved bottle collection-so pretty!

The tile collection

Collectibles that will add depth

A customized upholstered teak chair with beautiful tile work

Signature items

The click does not do justice to the beauty of this lovely painting

Pretty vases

These will adorn my house-thanks to a lovely person!

Isn't everything drool-worthy? Its no wonder that I'm so addicted to their FB page. I'm getting a few lovely stuff done from them and it makes me happy that there is an excuse to keep visiting their store often in the next few months.

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Sangreh- a store tour

Since the time I nose-dived into planning the decor for my home, I've been on the look out for interesting home decor stores on the net and within my locality. To my delight, I discovered a few stores around the area I live, that sell some exclusive stuff. 

I plan to feature the stores here for the benefit of people like me, who are eager to set up their homes, live in and around Whitefield area, but are loathe to venture into the city traffic to buy great looking stuff despite best intentions and keep wishing for such stores to come up in the vicinity.The first among them is a store called Sangreh that has been recently launched at AECS layout, close to ITPL junction, Kundalahalli and Marathahalli areas.  

Now, a good blogger always roams about with a handy camera to click away interesting finds, add lovely captions and tidbits, to make a story on their blogs. Sadly, I don't fall in that category. I'm always rushing out of home and only manage to stuff in the water-bottle and snack box for the young chap. Only after I landed at the store, did I realize that I had missed an opportunity to capture the store and its products. However, upon request, the store owner, Priyanka Mehra, was kind enough to not only permit me to feature her store but also use her photos.  

A little more about the store in Priyanka's own words:

"Sangreh, as the name suggests, is a collection of artifacts. An art for us is any item where a creative mind has worked to provide craftsmanship with hand or machine.  We believe that we can get  good artifacts for our customers and can work to provide a unique shopping experience. Our store-we ventured into this business about 5 years ago- is an experiment of our beliefs. After holding exhibitions at various places in the past 5 years we began to understand what the market wants and how quality artifacts can be made available for them. Setting up our own store was thus a natural progression of our venture and here we are at AECS layout now. Our intention is to provide a personal touch in our services and enhance the shopping experience for our customers. This, we hope to achieve by providing a home-like ambience to the store, personally attending to our customers, setting up a play area for our little customers, and providing unique and eco-friendly shopping bags"


Now, for the tour:

A view of the entire store

I'm in love with this antique clock-might buy this in the next visit ;-)

An eye catching attractive lamp

Musician figurines

Won't your books look even more lovely with these bookends?

Nested tables and unique elephant trunks

Attractive pottery drawers to hold your jewellery and knick-knacks

What bright colours!!!

Isn't this pretty?

The artifacts are directly outsourced from Rajasthan, which makes the pricing too quite economical. Apart from Home decor stuff, Sangreh also houses some lovely women's wear (kurtis, leggings, skirts,etc), chunky jewellery and soft furnishings. That's not all.  They also undertake orders for Solid wood furniture ( like coffee table, side tables, dinning table, bed, etc…)

I have to add another interesting thing that happened. As mentioned, the store had a small play area in their backyard and I heaved a sigh of relief that R could entertain himself which meant the husband also could join me in shopping which is a very rare occurrence. As I got talking with Priyanka, a little lad, about R's age, pottered in. Turned out that he and R are almost of the same age, go to the same school, albeit different classes, and also take the same bus route!

Not only this, but the apartment they stay in and the place we are about to move into are constructed by the same builder. Now, isn't this a LOT of coincidence?! Now, I can tell the husband that I share some karmic relation with this place and use the excuse to frequent it ;-)

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