A potful of creativity

Unique hobbies

A childhood inclination towards arts and crafts defined the way forward for Shabana Patel after she had her first child.

Focussing on being a hands-on mother as well as an earning member of the family, Shabana took to teaching the finer arts to those who otherwise had no opportunity to discover the artists in themselves. Along with that, she dabbled in different activities, creating stunning masterpieces in the process. 

“I did have a Masters in Fine Arts from Chitrakala Parishath but took to the field only during the later stages. My interest and passion grew with the years and I have tried my hand at everything from art to clay modelling to painting and so on,” she says. “Doing something like this gives me my own space and I thoroughly enjoy what I do.”

One of her artistic handiworks includes vases with brightly coloured flowers made using Sospeso. For the artistically uninitiated, Sospeso is an Italian technique that allows you to make volume decorative elements from special paper. One of the main materials used  is a special film that reacts to heat and is used to create the designs. Shabana has given this world-renowned technique a personal touch by mixing decoupage (the art or craft of decorating objects with paper cutouts) with sospeso and using regular terracotta vases as the base. “People loved it and I have got a lot of enquiries about how I managed to achieve this,” she says, smiling. 

A look at her Facebook page, ‘Think Color’, gives one an idea about the number of art buffs and craft lovers who have become her admirers now. Her timeline is peppered with striking images of her creations and the latest ones are all about huge vases with intricate, colourful floral designs, which have garnered rave reviews. 

“I mainly prefer to use a plain, white vase as the base because it brings out the colours of the flowers,” Shabana explains. “Floral designs have been my all-time favourites when it comes to motifs.”

But it was not always smooth sailing for this enterprising lady. “Initially my mother was not very happy about me getting into the arts field after having a successful career as a professional. But when she saw my passion, she came around,” laughs Shabana. “There were other challenges too — about making people aware of my art, getting students for my classes and so on. But slowly, our popularity spread with word-of-mouth and the last few years have been great, especially with the advent of social media which has made marketing so much more easier,” she explains.

Not merely content with getting recognition for her skilled artistry, Shabana wants to expand this appreciation to all those artists who are talented but are not in the radar of the public gaze, because of their inability to market themselves. “There are a lot of brilliant people in this field who deserve to be acknowledged and encouraged. I want to help them achieve this,” she says. 

Talking about the people who come to her to learn this artistry, Shabana says the age group ranges from 3 to 73 years and includes amateurs as well as complete beginners. “Art is not limited to people who have had professional training or learning. All one needs is some dedication and patience,” she elaborates.