The virtues of drinking beer

Designer Sheetal Patel urges you not to look at those empty beer bottles lying around your house as scrap. Instead, she helps you re-imagine them as beautiful objects d'art through her brand Chidiya

Who would have thought that entertaining guests every other night and guzzling beer by the gallons could lead to a full fledged alternate career? For city-based interior designer Sheetal Patel, crates of empty beer and other alcohol bottles lying around in her house and their caps were the perfect excuse to recycle them and turn them into beautiful bottle art and other accessories.

Chappals,u00a0 Rs 1,000

Through her brand Chidiya, launched in January this year, Sheetal creates earrings out of beer bottle caps, also uses them to make funky leather chappals, shapes metal into colourful tuk tuks and creates boxer shorts in kitschy Indian prints along with bottle art.

Bottle Art,u00a0RS 500-600

Like every designer who wishes to branch out on her own, Sheetal wanted to fly solo for a long time while working as a freelance interior designer and doing up the odd room or house on request. "I was always fascinated with handmade products and wanted to do something related to that. I kept making knick knacks but never knew the way ahead," says the 30-year-old designer who hails from Surat.

Postcards,u00a0 R 800 each

Finally, beginning this year Sheetal took the plunge and approached a couple of lifestyle stores in the city with her quirky products. To her surprise, the response was positive and they agreed to stock Chidiya designs. She also launched a Chidya Facebook page and started selling online.u00a0

The name Chidiya resonates with Sheetal's state of mind at the time when she was about to launch her brand. "I wanted to spread my wings and fly and thought that the name would be apt for my brand," she says. The inspiration for Chidiya products is manifold. While Sheetal was inspired by the colourful cycle rickshaws she saw on a visit to Calcutta to create miniature tuk tuks in pop colours and sequins, the vintage-style postcards with miniature paintings are actually done by an artisan from Jaisalmer that Sheetal sources for Chidiya.

The charm of owning a Chidiya bottle or beer bottle cap earrings, according the graduate from National Institute of Fashion Design, Surat, is that it will definitely bring a smile on your face, if nothing else. And you can order these colourful products from anywhere in the country. Drop in an email or call Sheetal to place your orders and the knick knacks should arrive on your doorstep within two to three days.

Look up Chidiya on Facebooku00a0 https://www.facebook.com/Chidiya.ki.kahani
Email chidiya@mail.com
Call 9880377276
Where Levitate, 100 Feet Road, Indiranagar and Orange Bicycle, 12th main, Indiranagar
Call 64528190/ 41255242u00a0u00a0