It's all in the jeans

It is said ‘out of limitations comes creativity’. Trupti Sharma will vouch for the truth of these words. An engineering student who is now a housewife, Trupti is juggling many roles and responsibilities to pursue her passion for crafting and makes a variety of items from old jeans.

“Fortunately, my husband is very supportive of what I do and he is my biggest critic as well. So is my son who is just 8 years old. He has lots to say about my creations and will give suggestions about colour combinations and all. The others don’t take this very seriously, they think it is a waste of time,” she says with a laugh.

Trupti was introduced to the world of art in her school, when she joined painting classes. But it is only in the last 2-3 years that she took to crafting seriously when her son grew up and she wanted to do something while sitting at home. Out of this dedication grew an exhaustive list of items like photo frames, bookmarks, coasters, pen stands, paper holders and more.

“The coasters are my favourite, even though I started making them recently. It was a lot of effort but I really liked the final outcome,” she says.

“Since I stay in a joint family, I have to run around the entire day. When I finally come back to my room at the end I see something I have made and I feel very happy.”

And she has no plans to stop. Trupti wants to learn new techniques of painting as well as decoupage, which she says is the biggest thing in the world of arts and crafts now.

Coming back to the present, where does she get all these old jeans from? “I used all of my son’s old jeans to make different things. But they were small and would get over fast. Luckily I managed to get my hands on one of my husband’s old jeans and now I am working with those. There is also a stationery shop near my place and the owner helps me source raw materials for my artefacts,” she says.

With not even a Facebook page dedicated to her creations, Trupti gifts these items to her friends and family. “They think that it is something very unique. Some time back, for a baby shower party for one of my friends, I made small cards in the shape of a nappy. She loved it because it was very personalised and different from normal options. Such reactions keep me going.”

What about challenges? “Time, time, time...Not many people understand that it is a time-consuming process. Between my chores and responsibilities, I squeeze in a few minutes here and there into my hobby whenever possible,” she says.

(Trupti can be contacted on [e-mail])