More than just bread and butter

Like many others, Sanjana Dilip has a number of quirky, radiant and colourful items in her house. However, what sets these items apart is the fact they are made out of stale bread! 

The 23-year-old makes funky items like fridge magnets, photo frames, mugs, pen holders, jars, hair bands and pendants out of stale bread. In fact, her love for art led her to start ‘Pink Feather’ in 2012. Though all her products are eco-friendly and handmade, they are also non-perishable.

She jokingly informs that she had never imagined that stale bread would soon become her ‘bread and butter’! It all started as a hobby. But when she put up a stall of her collection in a flea market, she realised that turning her hobby into her profession was possible. “People liked my products.

They found them innovative and this encouraged me. So I decided to take it up seriously and there has been no looking back since then,” says Sanjana.

Sanjana always had an inclination towards art and craft. She studied multimedia and interior design and now, she is devoted to her passion.

“My parents are very supportive. In fact, my mother quit her job to help me out with the venture and my father gives me good advice on marketing,” she says.

She takes an entire loaf of white sandwich bread and powders the white part of it. She then add glue and preservatives and kneads it. Once it becomes clay-like, she moulds it into the desired shape and leaves it for about two to three days to dry. Once the pieces are dry, she paints them with fabric paint.

She also makes seasonal products. For Christmas, ‘Pink Feather’ offers Santa caps as fridge magnets and has a touch of red and white on all its products. If you ask Sanjana which is her favourite product, she immediately says, “Magnets! I started off with magnets so they definitely have to be my favourite.”

Social media has helped her acquire greater visibility and now, she sells her products on a few online portals as well. Her products are also available in some stores and she plans to open a store of her own soon.

Sanjana also makes customised logos and nameplates. For an Australian client, she once made two jars with Mickey Mouse and Mini Mouse and wrote her children’s names on them. While Mickey was for her son, Mini was for her daughter! “It was quite challenging because I had never done something like this before. But I was quite excited as I like taking on challenges,” she says.