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.

 

 

 

 

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:….”

Do Bandar.

Do Bandar soap and lotion bars have absolutely nothing commercial about them or the packaging. Do bandar are the two monkeys who started it (two very pretty girls actually) and they’re right there on their product. Held together by a sturdy strip of dried palm leaf. Loved that touch. I saved mine and later used it to wrap up a gift.

A thin rim of colour around the main black & white label denotes the scent and ingredients used in a particular soap. Reminds me of a desi Lush :) Meet the bandars on their FB page, here.

Handmade kajal.

Next time someone is off to Rajasthan and asks you what you want, here’s what you want. Handmade kajal. I love that Purvi (who gifted it to Kavita) put it into this beautiful silver box. One that, when empty, will inspire you to make your own kajal and fill it up again.

Picture & lead, via Pii friend, Kavita Rayirath.

Skin Apotheke.

Ria Kaushal’s brand of Ayurvedic, organic, handmade goodness comes in vibrant, young packaging. Fresh, fun, friendly and very new India. Click here.

p.s – Love the name.

Holy Lama soaps.

Holy Lama Naturals in Auroville create organic bath and beauty products and a range of divine essential oils. Featured here is their kewra soap, packed in dried areca leaf. Simple thing is that it can be used as a soap dish too.

Recycle Sundays: Hope rope.

Recycle Sundays: Made entirely from discarded plastic and foil packaging, these ropes are made strong and sturdy by professional rope-makers in Gujrat and marketed by the micro-entrepreneurs of the region. Makes for happy Indian rope beds amongst a hoard of other things.

Via designer & Pii friend, Purvi Sanghvi.

Bon Auroville.

BON (Bio, Organic and Natural) bath and beauty products from Auroville use dried leaves, handmade jute,  butter paper and an endearing line (“Cares the young women”) to make packaging that is just as pure as the handmade, organic goodness it holds inside.

Via designer & Pii friend, Nidhi Berera whose creations you can see at Bangalore’s Kitsch Mandi tomorrow.

Quillkaari packages.

Quillkaari make these lovely delicate, handcrafted paper accessories, and they send these across to their customers in the most endearing way. The way happy people decorate gift boxes – simple brown boxes, playful scribbles, cute messages and intricate Quillkaari decorations.

Elephants Remember.

The Memory Box for children. Handmade and personalised to hold little objects that are close to your heart, or your kids’. Lovely thought from the lovely folk at Elephants Remember.

Elephant-poo handmade paper bags have a simple illustration of the source of the paper on the bag. The texture is grassy and sturdy; the sizes are convenient for gifting; and it is the perfect ice-breaker :) More here - http://elephantpoopaper.com/