Turn out bright as a new pin

Multidisciplinary artiste Poorva Shingre says she has been a "maker of things since forever". She'd rather use her hands than a computer, and that's how it's been since she was little. "I would make things I would wear. Since I love wearing shirt pins, when one of my favourite earrings broke, I converted it into a pin," says the Sir JJ Institute of Applied Arts alumnus, recollecting how it all started.

Poorva Shingre

Shingre, who works as graphic designer and illustrator, hand-makes and paints her collection of lapel pins (R500 each), including the minute drawings that adorn them. So that her pins don't poke holes into precious clothes, she now uses magnets that hold them in place. "In the 1990s, magnetic earrings were big. So, I started using magnets at the back of my pins. I have worked through the day, done my chores and even survived a local train ride with the pin in place," she says, explaining why her friends call the magnet pins, unhole-y. Once she has the design down on paper, she sculpts the shape in clay. After it has dried in sunlight, they get painted over, first with a charcoal pencil, and then in colour.

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