Make A Wish Bedsheet

So this friend of mine is a self-confessed unromantic fellow. He isn't the one who will bring breakfast for his wife on her bedside even once in two years. Deciding to break away from his reputation, Purav asked me to hand paint a bedsheet for his wife Mansee for her birthday which happens to be today.

Bedsheets are never easy to hand paint, and he knew after seeing my previous work. So he told me a good one month back. Brief was simple, there was no brief. He told me, “Make what you think Mansee will love. Because I like what you do on bedsheets.” While that was flattering, but in retrospect I realized that if Purav knew little-little things about Mansee, like her favourite colour, favourite cuisine, dream holiday destination, it would have made life easier.

Never mind, men will be men. So I decided to take the uncharted territory of first knowing what Mansee likes and then making a concept out of it. But how to ask Mansee about her likes and dislikes just for time pass. So me and Gautam got into arguments and called up Mansee to validate our arguments and in that all Gautam weaved around questions to know what Mansee likes.

Once we got to know little bit more, we zeroed in on four-five concepts.

And the final concept, called Make-A-Wish, was nailed. The pillow showed Mansee blowing away candles from her birthday cake. On the bedsheet, its written Make A Wish, and below there is another illustration of Mansee in deep thought making a wish. And the central creative is a thought bubble which shows all wishes that Mansee has in her mind like flying to Paris, playing volleyball, shopping, Yuvaan growing up soon, Purav and Mansee cycling together and so on and so forth.

We pray all her wishes come true. Purav hope you have made a note, now its on paper what all Mansee wishes for. ;)

The entire bedsheet set

The Pillow covers which shows Mansee blowing off the candles

That's bday girl Mansee on her bedsheet with hubby Purav sitting around

The rolling Yuvi boy, Mansee's bubbly and growing-up-very-fast son

The usual suspect and the new cutey

I dream of Chhota Bheem these days. The number of Chhota Bheem shoes that I have made is not funny. And the count is still on. There are another couple in the pipeline. So when my friend Krishna asked for a couple of pairs, there was mixed feelings as I accepted the order.

She wanted a pair of Chhota Bheem for her son, a character which I sometimes hallucinate about. The saving grace, literally, was the Winnie The Pooh order. Yes, Winnie The Pooh is my favourite, favouritest, favouritest favourite cartoon character. I love them so much that while I was completing my studies in Mumbai and I fell sick, my folks got me one Winnie the Pooh soft toy. This was like seven years back, I was 22 then.

That's another story. So this time when I was sick of making Chhota Bheem shoes, Winnie The Pooh excited me and gave me that fillip to work. So here's the usual suspect with the new cutey pair of shoes.

Avengers Assemble at my studio

"Gopi, come rain or sunshine, you have to give me these shoes by this Saturday," said Hardik last Saturday. I was already under a pile of orders, and this demand from Hardik looked impossible to comply with. But then the excitement of doing new characters excited me and along with Little Pony shoes, I started working on Avengers shoes for Hardik's nephew.

More than me Gautam got excited knowing I got a client wanting Avengers shoes. Yes, Gautam can watch Avengers movie thrice in a day almost every alternate day. That's another story but.

While I was sceptical about the idea, I mean making Hulk, Captain America and others was tough because these guys were superheroes who relied more on facial expressions. And when I started making the shoe, my doubts came true. Making Hulk and Captain America's became a big challenge. These are 3D characters and not 2D, and that's where it just got a bit tough.

Making Iron Man came as easy as the role comes to Robert Downey Jr. But honestly, I surprised myself in the end. And Hardik who picked the shoe like just 30 minutes back was also pleasantly surprised. I hope the nephew loves them. So here is Avengers mini assembly for all to see.

'Sabse Chhota' (the tiniest) Chhota Bheem

Yes, the headline says it all. I may be posting something after a really long time. But trust me I have had so many orders to complete (touchwood) in this time that there was really no time to even pee. Ok, so this 'Chhota' Chhota Bheem order was the first of eight orders I had. And trust me, it took more time to complete these tiny, cuty Chhota Bheem shoes for Raahil than any other shoe.

The order came to us through my husband's boss Yo Nambiar, the Tom & Jerry loving gentle giant. Yes, we had made Tom & Jerry shoes for Yo and Raahil happens to be son to Yo's buddies Anu and Rakesh. Yo showed them his new possession, who then decided to get something similar done for their son. 

And there you go, at size 6, measuring 15.5 cms exactly, these Chhota Bheem shoes came along nice. But the grind I went through in making them was as good as making a shoe of adult size nine. Smaller the shoes, more the detailing. It was getting tougher painting them. Anyway I pulled it off after a spike in energies and brains occured with a super dark cold coffee made by my hubby Gautam. The result is for everyone to see.

P.S.: Coming up next: Hand painted shoes with My Little Pony, Winnie The Pooh, Breaking Bad, Simpsons, Avengers & others.

Ohh Shruti, you are just too good

There are days when I feel how I wish I could do what this friend of mine does. And today was that day. Shruti, now a mom, is simply amazing in what she does with a piece paper. And what I saw today just reinforces my feeling of being half as good as she is with her work. 

So just in case if you guys feel that you want to see what all can done with a piece of paper, follow this blog of Shruti Menon and feel amazed everytime she puts up a new post. You will, trust me.

Blog Link: http://shruti.anup.org/?p=2089