Weaving smiles: Bead by bead

The 13-year-old girl’s wish was a simple one. She wanted to make earrings and her mother happily said yes. The nod didn’t end up with her daughter becoming a master crafter. Instead, many women imbibed the skill and it became a source of income for several financially backward families in Karnataka. 

Manjul Menon and her daughter Manini Menon named this little-big initiative BEAD (Believing in Empowerment, Achievement and Dignity). The five-year-old BEAD, based in Bengaluru, has grown from strength to strength over time and has become a fabric brand that works to uplift lower income groups.

“Women, mostly domestic helps, who may or may not have another earning member in their families, were trained to make earrings. We were then approached by women having sewing machines on their own and we moved into tailoring. It started with making wrap-around skirts that would appeal to all, irrespective of demography,” Manjul rewinds.

The products range from stoles, dupattas, hand embroidered saris, jewellery, home linen and more. They are classified further into the ones that go for donation and the others that are put up for sales. 

“Donations are for slums where people need to wrap themselves in quilts to escape harsh weather conditions. We associate with an NGO in four Assembly constituencies to implement this. The rest are quilts made for sales,” says Manjul. An IIM-B grad, she left her 15-year-long corporate life to focus wholly on BEAD. “I haven’t yet drawn my salary. I run BEAD and firmly believe our success is the health and happiness of our women and their families,” she says.

They ensure the materials on which they work are handloom ones or are prints made of eco-friendly dye. Since the customers’ choice is ever evolving, BEAD is open to experiments with new styles, the latest being application of Kasuti embroidery. 

A traditional art in north Karnataka, it is featured on different types of clothing like skirts, dupattas, stoles and saris. Likewise, the possibilities of Chittara folk art, a wall art form done on huts, are also explored on the products. This is in addition to tie-ups with the Toda tribe in Coonoor and Gond tribal artists in Madhya Pradesh.

The ‘chief designer’ of BEAD, Manini, now 18, is pursuing her graduation in Liberal Arts. The past six weeks had BEAD conducting expos in four Indian cities, the latest of which concluded at Kochi. This was kind of homecoming for Manjul whose paternal and maternal roots are belong to Kerala. 

The buyer-seller relationship has gone online and Manjul says the products are sold as soon as they are posted on the Facebook page of BEAD Social Enterprise. “Our customer strength grows by word of mouth. Our satisfied clients recommend us to others,” she says.