Wild Ideas’ Grocery Bags

The way a bag is designed can change the weight you feel while carrying things in it. I came across this bag at Organicz4U, the neighbourhood organic store. The wooden sticks were what attracted me to them initially, but later Parvez, the owner, explained that it’s designed to make my weekly grocery load feel lighter.

Maithreyi of Wild Ideas who designed the bag, runs a cooperative that makes all things organic for the home. The bag featured here is just one of 16 cloth bags they distribute to grocery stores. It’s called the ‘katte pai with neem handles’ and can easily and comfortably hold up to 10 kilos.

Wild Ideas is a community-based cooperative of disadvantaged women based in Tiruvannamalai. The group makes 100% organic and handmade products.

While looking at their product range I also discovered a small, beautiful detail. That their soap packages carry an illustration of the Arunachala hill in Tiruvannamalai. A hill that’s considered one of the five most important Shaivite sites in India.

So in-sync when community, design and goodness all come together to change a simple everyday moment like carrying a heavy grocery bag up to a car.

 

To know more about Wild Ideas, you can email maithreyi.ratan@yahoo.com

To shop at an organic grocery store that knows the farms and the people who provide them with their veggies, click here.

 

 

 

 

Dipper

Kitschy Indian art has always been a likely winner at international ad festivals. Here we see a classic formula. Sex + Ethnic art = Silver

Just hoping a few truckers out there are actually using this, because the problem is real and the packs out there, far too few. Tata Motors really should make this a nation-wide campaign (if it isn’t already) so that every highway-blaring driver out there gets these colourful, uber distracting condoms to rip and place atop a creaky cot under the stars.

Via – CC, of The Sole Sisters & here.

p.s –

Dipper refers to lorry headlights, not the organ.

The Nico Bar

Nicobar (Good Earth’s hipster arm) has come out with an innovative little piece that is so connected to all they do and feel. A bar of chocolate crafted exclusively for Nicobar by the talented Mandakini (who was recently featured on their blog for her baked goodnesses). The bar’s packaging features their current tropical palette. How beautifully linked and delicious.

Pics: From the Nicobar FB page and site.

Bira91

Found a tossed Bira cap in the garden, picked it up and pinned it up on someone’s softboard. Only because of the funky monkey on it.

The rest of this new desi craft beer bottle and the colours on it are just as funky monkey. There’s White where the Bira monkey just stares straight ahead, and there’s Blonde where the Bira monkey holds out a peace sign in Freddie Mercury style.

The best part about the packaging is that they have a Growler. That’s a traditional jar used to carry beer from the brewery to your home. Keeps it fresh and bubbly.

I found Bira at Thoms. And you can read more about Bira here.

Once Upon a Doug

Doug (dhug means cloud in Marathi) is a hand-crafted bracelet made by women cotton farmers in India to raise money in times of drought. It’s poetic that they’ve chosen the cloud to be a symbol of this hopeful initiative.

The packaging is a simple brown with the thought neatly laid out on the front and the bracelet displayed almost like it’s a floating cloud.

It’s easy-to-make, great to look at and can be neatly parceled off to those who want to help.

Get your Doug here.

 

 

All Things Chocolate & Péro

Péro, an ethereally lovely handcrafted clothing line and All Things Chocolate, a scrumptiously unique brand of artisan chocolate, come together in these preciously chequered gingham boxes. As collectible as they come, these boxes are. Mostly used to store stash, safety pins and paper clips. Yes, I asked around.

Find All Things here, and Péro here.

Origin One

If you blindly love stationery, place an order for Origin One’s surprise box of goodies that’s hand picked from their own collection of design-drooled ware.

Apart from the packaging that comes tied in shoe-lace inspired string and a box that’s covered with enough to keep you from opening it, what I like is the thought. A surprise box you pay for. Fair. Fun.

Order yours here.

Images: Origin One’s insta feed.

Olie

Olie is known for its island-inspired designs, natural fabrics and simplistic design sensibilities. So when I found that they had an entire section dedicated just to boxes, I was thrilled. Thrilled to note that they’re using left over fabric to make gifting and storing a pleasure.

These boxes – available in rectangles, hexagonals, rounds and squares – are wrapped neatly in fabric and finished fine.

Ideal for storing your preciouses or gifting treasures to your preciouses.

 

Find Olie ware here.

Nine by Thirty

Aparna Das Sadhukhan’s jewellery brand, Nine By Thirty is a work of love. So when she needed packaging for it, she turned to more love, her Ma.

Mrs D recycled beautiful old sarees and fabrics to make pouches for NBT’s necklaces and earrings.

Love all the emotions and designs surrounding this one.

Find Nine By Thirty here.

Chindi

Using the skills of India’s designers, Chindi uses the textile industries’ scrap materials to make the most pleasing products.Crochets, knots and a lot of love go into Chindi products.

This here is their market bag.

I’ve seen a lot of upcycled/recycled bags and none of them have the aesthetic balance Chindi’s products do.

Find them here.

 

p.s –

I personally like their yoga mat bag straps.

Earth Loaf Artisan & Raw Soul Food

In my increasingly-manic quest for dairy-free chocolate, I was blessed enough to have finally stumbled across Earth Loaf right here in Mysore, yoga’s second favourite destination. Emails flew back and forth and after prompt confirmation from David that it was indeed dairy-free, I ordered my first stash.

I am not going into detail about the exquisite, volcanic eruption of pure, slightly salty, slightly bitter cacao in my long-deprived soul; because this is a packaging blog.

The packaging reminded me of the love with which I used to wrap gifts when I first discovered Auroville handmade paper. In this case, the paper is made from recycled cotton and silk and screen-printed with motifs of peacocks and elephants. The motif is Chittara art of the Malnad region and designed by Mysore-based Harsha Nagaraju. David, of Earth Loaf, has used cacao beans and palmyra sugar from the region and intends for the packaging to be from there too.

What I liked the most – line on the back of the pack that reads “Made, packed and loved by:….”

Alta

Alta or Rose Bengal is a deep red dye made from lac and used to grace the feet and hands of women and dancers in the North East regions of India. I’ve always seen the dye in glass bottles that stain red even after using it once, making it difficult to store and handle, especially after one is dressed up. Glass bottles also make it scary to hold because if this breaks and falls you’ll have very deep red dye stains all over the place, forever.

So it was nice to find a plastic bottle shaped to be held comfortably. Found this one right outside a durga temple in Calcutta. Love the kitschness and joba-ness of the cover and love the shape of the bottle and the chauka depiction on the front. The chauka is the basic position in Odissi and symbolic of Lord Jagannath.

Not too sure how well that stopper will work once open, but will definitely be more seal-proof than the screw-type cap.