featured artist : Padmaja

Pink Graffiti is happy to feature artist Padmaja Chaluvadi! a wonderful textile artist and surface designer from India, Padma is a New York resident, with a studio in Brooklyn. a fascinating person that i am lucky enough to have met and call a friend, she is traveling in India at the moment, painting and visiting family.

Padma working in her studio. her Etsy shoppe currently sells clothing, home decor and accessories, all hand painted and printed in her Brooklyn studio. we actually met through my mother and her friend, Rauf, who lives in India.

Padma was kind enough to answer some of my interview questions:

Tell us a bit about yourself, your shop, what you design/create!

Well, I am an Art director/advertising by profession but always been drawn to fashion and textiles since childhood. So now my work has the mixed influence of advertising, fine arts, as in having an idea/concept/thought behind the patterns. As well as cross cultural iconography, indian motifs with a western twist, a western motif with an Indian subtext.

When did you start creating things?

Five years ago, one Fall day, just for fun, I enrolled in an evening class of experimental screen printing at FIT, and now forever got hooked on the tactile medium. The interplay of the substrate is simply addictive.

How do you like selling on Etsy so far? Would you like to start selling anywhere else?

I just started, and I like the venue very much, but all the sales I made so far are from my friends and family :). So, That's not exactly true measure of sales... Yes, I want to try other avenues, high end boutiques, museums and custom orders.

What kind of materials do you like to use? What are your favorite tools to work with?

Natural and eco-friendly materials. I really try to be a fair trader and use low impact resources in the production process. My favourite tool is a loaded brush:).

Do you enjoy any other crafts or hobbies? What do you do when you're not crafting?

A lot of photography (my main source of imagery), a lot of reading, 'looking' and painting.

Where do you look for inspiration?

Everywhere... Nature, literature, and new york city streets.

Any tips for other artists starting a craft business?

Don't give up on your dream, and don't give up on your day job until your dream becomes real/possible. Personally and surprisingly, I am more creative and productive when I know my bills are getting paid than being a full time Artist and I am a 24/7 worry knot.

Where do you see your business going? Any future plans?

I want to enter home furnishing and interior design market and explore custom designs for fashion houses.
Anything else you'd like to share?

Thank you Lesley for your time and interest.

thank you Padma, we are so excited to hear about your work! Padma and i have had lovely conversations about design and combining interiors and fiber design. we wish you so much luck and a wonderful, enriching time in India!

you can also see her beautiful hand-painted and silkscreened designs here: http://majastudio.carbonmade.com/

i'm featured on a blog!

oh how exciting! Felt-o-rama, a wonderful Etsy seller, and crafter, has featured me and Pink Graffiti at her blog!

see the interview here.

thank you so much, April!

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the holidays are over, and i'm slowly getting back into crafting, i have so many ideas in my head! one of my biggest inspirations, a lovely necklace from Anthropologie.

another year, another decade

merry christmas and happy happy new year!!! welcome back everyone, and i hope that all was merry and bright.

the husband and i stayed in NYC this year, just the two of us. it was quite relaxing and a blessing not to travel, but we missed our families dearly. here is our christmas corner, after opening presents and watching Christmas Vacation all day while we prepared our dinner feast.

i started cleaning and setting up the dinner table. candlesticks from my aunt and uncle from our wedding shower, bottles and vessels from our wedding, red beaded placemats from Kmart on sale, paisley napkins from Crate and Barrel, ornaments and gold leaves and berries from Michael's.

i spent the afternoon baking a cherry berry pie, which was so delicious. cherries, raspberries, blueberries and strawberries. very simple recipe actually. i topped the pie with the Texas state, in honor of Julia, my sweet Mother in Law. here is what i did:

-Pillsbury pie shells
-Cherry pie filling in a can (i recommend using 2 cans for a 9-inch pie pan if you want ONLY cherries - i only used one and had to improvise)
-Mixed berries, frozen

prepare pie pan as usual, with one pie shell on the bottom, cut to fit the pan.
place cherry pie filling inside first.
let the mixed berries thaw to room temperature before placing in pie.
add 2 T of butter. place second pie shell over top, fold in as usual.
you can use any cookie cutter shape you might have that would be fun! i was given this Texas cookie cutter for my bachelorette party last summer, so i used the remaining dough (after cutting to fit the pan), rolled it out and used the cookie cutter! this could be very fun with a star, or snowflake shape around the holidays.
bake as usual! yum.

the menu for the evening's feast:

-top sirloin steaks from Whole Foods (see Brian below grilling in the apartment)
-sauteed green beans
-baked potato
-crescent rolls

we love this grill. one of the gifts from our registry, both an indoor and outdoor George Forman grill.

our table set up for dinner, with our ware that we registered for at Crate and Barrel. thank you to our wonderful parents who sent us another place setting for christmas gifts, we are almost complete!!

finally, the dinner is ready and we feast.

we missed everyone so much this holiday season, but we were so happy to receive so many cards and photos. they are plastering our refrigerator. many happy wishes and may all your resolutions come true this year, this new decade.