Good with wood work

Creative nameplates

Sumanya Narayanan’s work caters to a very niche audience – the artist works with wood and makes nameplates. While most people are content with tile or marble nameplates, some look for unique and customised pieces, at which Sumanya is a master.

For the past 10 years, she has worked with different kinds of wood – teak, silver wood, jungle wood and more – and has created customised pieces for many. On how she started, she says, “When we shifted houses, I made a nameplate for us. A neighbour saw it and asked me to make one for their house. Few more people saw this and, by word-of-mouth, I had many requests coming in. Since I had done a course on mural painting, it wasn’t very difficult.”

She calls this a “niche market” because, “When I went looking for nameplates, I couldn’t find anything that I wanted. I just came back from the store. This way, people can customise them.”

Along with nameplates, she also makes murals, but only on order. “Nameplates really interest me because every single piece is different, in some way or the other. Some are traditional, other are contemporary or a mix of other. I’ve made abstract ones too. Nameplates tell you so much about a family or person,” she says. It is for this reason that she makes only customised pieces. “I spend a lot of time on each nameplate. I draw up few initial drafts and mail them to the customer. After a back and forth of mails, and getting to know the person, I make the product,” she adds.

How does she select the wood to work on? “If it’s a nameplate that’s going to spend time outside, exposed, I’d suggest wood like teak or exterior grade wood. If one wants a natural look to it, they should use silver wood, rubber wood or jungle wood.” Most of the wood she uses has been discarded, so this is her way of upcycling. She buys most of the wood from Shivajinagar.

On the process itself, she says, “I take the help of a wood-cutting outlet close to my house to cut the wood. After that, I take over and design it. Before doing anything on it, the wood needs to be cleaned, polished and treated so that it doesn’t spoil. To polish it, I use linseed oil. I use terracotta masks, beads, jute and coir to make the nameplates.” Although she sources the terracotta products, she does make masks out of M-Seal. She also uses fabric cute letters and tile letters.

Sometimes, she has to work with constrains. “Once, a customer said that they wanted a nameplate that was orange in colour and had peacock feathers, on a 11 inch space,” she says. This is why she spends so much time on her customers – to check what wood or colour would suit their door and front porch.