Coimbatore: Even empty bottles can turn into a business proposition. Madhumalini Subburaj, third year B.Com Company Secretary student at PSG College of Arts and Science, grew up seeing her mother collecting empty bottles.
“After my Plus-2 I took the bottles my mother collected and started painting them. Those were the days to experiment a lot, as it was my baby steps. After coming to Coimbatore and joining PSG College of Arts and Science, I got more exposure and decided to convert it into business idea,” recalls the 20-year-old, who hails from Munnar, Kerala.
She calls her brand ‘Kupikarc’. “Kupik means bottle in Sanskrit and ARC stands for art, Renovate plus Recycle and Contribute,” she explains.
She never thought this could be a good business pitch and people would appreciate it too. She has got so addicted to bottles that she does not even hesitate to pick up bottles lying on the roadside.
“Mostly I collect the bottles from houses, hotels and friends. These are bottles we use at home like jam, ghee, ketchup, oil, and even the alcohol bottles, which are thrown away for no use. My mother gets so angry when once I picked up alcohol bottles from road side,” she laughs.
The basic method to make the bottles is to soak the nylon thread in nail polish remover for sometime, then tie around the bottle with that thread and fire the thread. Immediately after the thread is burnt, cool the thread tied portion with ice cubes and pull it out slowly. The tied portion will be separated. The creativity is based on the way one ties the threads over the bottles.
Hotels, corporate offices, clubs, schools and colleges buy her bottles. Before jumping into the waste recycling business, she did and she still does a lot of research to understand the glass cutting techniques.
“I learnt the basic glass cutting techniques on Internet. To do all this, I need knife, different types of threads, wools, retro taps and tube paints.”
Her business idea is to get connected with the self-help groups. “I want to adopt them and employ them. This will really make a good team,” she smiles. She marketed her work through WhatsApp and Facebook.
First she collects bottles; sterilizes them with hot water and glycerin, cleans it with dettol, dries the bottles. She uses both glass and plastic bottles. It takes her one full day to make two pieces of bottle art.
“I mostly use purple, green, black, spray glass painting, acrylic colours and fabric colours. But once I did a survey to find out the taste and liking of people and I came to know that people were hesitant to welcome recycled alcohol bottles in their interior. Customers even suggested bringing in pleasant colours instead of darker shades.”
After this survey, she has been working on a different look and design for the bottles. She meets florists and interior designers for suggestions. “They suggested me that I can even make pencil stands, flower vase and candle stands out of these bottles.”
She has sold around 60 bottles in the last one-and-a-half years. The painted bottles ranges from Rs 300 to Rs 450 and the creative cut bottles costs Rs 800. She decorates them with waste CD players, ice cream cups, pints and beads, glitter, glue and ceramic clay.
“I want to start my own firm to revive the traditional art of our country. I also want to try out the laser printing on bottles,” sums up Madhumalini.
