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Sudharani handcrafts eco-friendly gifting items
While growing up in Bhubaneswar, whenever Sudharani Marandi received pocket money from her father, she would spend most of it on buying colourful quilling paper. Her father Kuanr Charan Marandi, now a retired officer of the Odisha Civil Service, disapproved of her craft.
By the time Sudharani was pursuing graduation at the Bhubaneswar-based Ramadevi Women’s College, she had turned her passion into a small source of income. She would earn an average of around Rs1000 monthly by selling her eco-friendly handicrafts to her college friends and acquaintances.
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Handmade home business
Today, her home business Jhunuk Crafts generates around Rs 50,000 per month through handcrafted decorative and gift items.
She uses paper and medium-density fibre (MDF) and upcycles waste cardboards and discarded tetra packs to make rakhis, earrings, key chains, greeting cards, tissue boxes, decorative photo frames and other items.
Sudharani, who belongs to the Santal tribal community, started learning about various crafts from the Internet and went on practising with waste newspapers when she was in Venkateswar English Medium School, Bhubaneswar. “My passion was boosted when my mother (Panamani Marandi), an artist without any degree or diploma, helped me design my botany and zoology projects during graduation,” she says.
When Sudharani was pursuing business management at the Bhubaneswar-based Institute of Entrepreneurship Development in 2016-17, the then principal Bidhu Bhusan Mishra was impressed by her skills.
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The college installed a paper quilling machine at a cost of Rs 20,000, and Sudharani started making about 200 products every month. They included earrings, key chains and gift boxes.
“After the course, I plunged headlong into learning more designs. My main tool kit comprised toothpicks, scissors and glue,” says Sudharani.
A native of the Bada Sahi Chhelia in Odisha's Mayurbhanj district, Sudha works independently and registered ‘Jhunuk Crafts’ in 2018 with the State MSME (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise) Department. As a home business, the work is unaffected when her husband Vikramjit Majhi, a bank officer, is transferred. He encourages her to continue the work.
“In the Santali language ‘Jhunuk’ means seashell that hides pearls within. So I named my business ‘Jhunuk Crafts’ as it brought out the artist in me,” says Sudha.
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Products and processes
The price range of products begins at Rs20 (rakhi) and goes up to Rs10,000 for customized pieces involving intricate work.
Fridge magnets are priced upwards of Rs50, photo frames start at Rs200 and key chains at Rs100. The maximum sales take place during exhibitions and customers also place bulk orders both offline and online.
She also receives bulk orders from the US and UK. Institutions like Santali Art and Film Development Association (SAFDA) in district headquarters Baripada of Mayurbhanj rope in Sudharani to decorate the venue of its annual Baripada Indigenous Short Film Festival (BISF) with her tribal designs. “Sudharani voluntarily takes up work for BISF. However, we pay her an honorarium,” says Deepak Kumar Beshra, the founder-cum-chairman of SAFD.
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She takes a minimum of three days and a maximum of five days to make any piece. The time required to make any item depends on the intricacy of the design.
More than 200 different products are sold every month. The sales go up during the Rakhi festival when around 100 to 150 designs are sold.
She does not use any chemicals in her crafts. Sudharani used social media to market her products. In 2018 the first bulk order came from an event management client. Her participation in the two-day exhibition in Kolkata in 2019 made her a popular name in craft circles and brought in many customers and connoisseurs. She sold goods worth Rs45,000 in two days.
“This extremely positive response inspired me to experiment with more designs. Though I made a shot at carton boxes in 2021 during COVID-19, I have not yet started marketing it,” she says.
“I started making tissue boxes from the MDF board during 2019-20. Unlike printed tissue boxes, mine are hand painted and exclusive,” she says.
Now Sudharini takes part in about six exhibitions every year where she earns money and accolades. “Seeing this, my father, who opposed it all, now appreciates my craft,” she smiles.
(Niroj Ranjan Misra a Cuttack-based freelance writer. He writes on rural and tribal life, social issues, art and culture, and sports).
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