Thursday Salute to Originals: Animal Farm
As Nishi Chauhan was swept into daydreams about her ever-growing glass bottle collection, she understood that something needed to be done. Looking upon the various mason jars, wine, and beer bottles in her home, she began to see shapes emerge in the form of animals.
After visiting a local craft district just outside the city of Bangalore and seeing the hundreds of playful animal toys being created by a community of craftsmen, Nishi began a collaboration with them. Various sketches and mock-ups were produced and exchanged until Nishi and the craftsmen shared a collective vision for the bottles. From this interplay of design and making, Animal Farm was born.
These quirky and colorful pieces are an example of an adaptive reuse project which gives the upcycled glass forms new life. Some figures are also fashioned into lamps which diffuse the light and give off a soft and ‘friendly’ glow that make them great for use as a child’s nightlight.
As Nishi recounts the story of the design process:
“The real challenge was to achieve a fusing of attitude and approach between the designer and craftsman, with give and take on both sides. How do you get them to look at objects from a wider world view when their entire world has always been their community? How do you get them to understand design intent, with the interplay of materials, when they’ve only ever worked with one material all their lives? How do you get someone to pay attention to the details and finesse when they’ve spent generations earning money by producing hundreds of objects a day, so what if the curve doesn’t turn out just so?”
A true story behind each creation, we salute the process by which Nishi and the team of craftsmen envision and create the barnyard collections.
Image credits: Nishi Chauhan