Recycled stained glass trophies
When Radhika Deshpande, a well-known face in the Marathi TV and film industry asked me if I could make stained glass trophies for her organisation, I was thrilled.
I had never made any trophies for anybody before this. Never ever.
10 Trophies and 54 medals in glass was her idea to encourage and celebrate young talent, a bunch of teenagers that were graduating from her organisation in Pune called ‘RadhikaCreations’.
The idea was to make wearable art in glass replacing the usual boring medals.
Interestingly Radhika asked me to make the glass pendants for both girls and boys with crystal beads at the end and it looked simple yet bright and catchy.
For the trophies, the initial plan was to make the base in wood and it seemed the most practical option against a metal base which would have been over the top expensive for both of us.
While I started cutting the Peacock trophy (which is actually a part of her logo) I thought and asked Radhika if we could use the half cut wine bottle base as the base for the trophy rather than getting it made in wood. To create an example Of recycled and upcycled version of glass art.
For all the wine bottles that I cut to make wind chimes, the base is either gifted or used at the studio to store tools and I thought it would make an excellent base for the trophy.
To fit the stained glass trophy, floral plants with a bit of earth into these bases was just perfect. We set an example of recycling, gifting plants and an art form of Tiffany style stained glass trophy, and it worked out beautifully. You can see the pictures 🙂
You need to meet fellow artists and clients like Radhika who believe in your work, and take you creative inputs positively, what else does an artist crave for? 🙂 Thank you Radhika.
AND my work is always incomplete till my friend and photographer Suchi Govindarajan captured it.
Thank you Suchi 🙂
Six months into making jewellery and these past six months have been nothing but a non-stop learning for me. As artist, as an entrepreneur, these past few months were precious. There have been times when I was overwhelmed by all this, but Aarohi made sure that I observe and work on the details of each piece that I craft. Cutting a pair of perfect circles, grinding them to perfection, copper foiling them and eventually soldering them together was tough. For me, this was a sudden shift from making and designing 7 X 3 square feet stained glass door panels to creating a 1inch diameter circular jewellery piece. It was a giant leap and it only made me realise my true potential as a stained glass artist when I slowly started working perfectly onto much smaller glass pieces. Aarohi and me are all set to launch our creation really soon and meanwhile I am eager to share some of the ‘work in progress’ photos of our work.
