Eco Friendly Home and Office Decor Products

Our team of artists have been highly encouraged by the response from patrons who have supported Graminno's vision of rural sustainability through innovation by purchasing the furniture range of products. We also received several suggestions and feedback to design a range of home and office decor products. Based on a joint design workshop conducted at the village, our team is now excited to announce the availability of this new range of products.

Photo Album of the Design Workshop

The children attend the design workshop conducted by Design Thinking expert, Sharmila. They are accompanied by their teachers who will continue to work with the children to guide them and continue making more designs as part of their arts and crafts education.

The Graminno team of artists work with Sharmila to create the prototype of the Jahkadi Floor Lamp - Dance of the Forest. This is a painstaking process of selecting the right branches, cleaning them, polishing them and then assembling them in a formation that represents the dance.

The prototype of the Deeva Tea Light Holders in progress. The trick is in finding the right pieces of branch, cutting it in the right angle, and then painstakingly carve out the hole to hold the tea light. Then comes the long process of finishing the product with polishing, smoothing and applying a coat of varnish to protect them.

The first batch of Kaape Coasters is kept out for drying. The children are very proud of the designs they made. Their teachers are also excited to show off their work to other neighbouring village schools.

The team has made a jig to hold a full set of Kaape Coasters to polish and finish them together. The jig design was a collaboration between the invited engineer volunteers and the team, and they are very proud of having created an innovative solution to speed up their work.

Sameer, an expert in wood and metal working, helps train the team on using the jigsaw to speed up cutting the bases for the Kaape Coasters and the Jakhadi Lamp Shades.

Later that evening, we are graced by the presence of the renowned musician, Viveick Rajagopalan, who conducts a musical collaboration with the musicians of the village, with the Graminno team and all the children joining in full gusto!

At the end of the workshop, all the finalized design prototypes are ready, and the team gathers together with all the children at Nitish's home in the village to inspect and discuss next steps for this new range of products.

Please Support Rural Sustainability

After a challenging few years delay of the inauguration of the workshop due to Covid and the devastation caused by Nisarga cyclone, the entire team is truly grateful for all the support and encouragement received from patrons and volunteers who attended various design workshops, music collaboration sessions and other events at the workshop. We also thank all the patrons who purchased all the products that the village team has made.

We are so happy to see that the Graminno team consisting of youth who did not migrate to cities in search of jobs is now able to financially sustain themselves due to the support provided by all the patrons.

Please do continue to support us in the coming year!