Fashioned By Hand

Artisanal Abode, headed by product designer Upasana Jain, combines her love for handmade products, and her respect for India’s local artisans and craftsmen to create contemporary furniture.

- Deepa Nair

Handmade creations… there is a lure, a charm, and most definitely a uniqueness to them. Product designer Upasana Jain, the protagonist of this story, developed a strong appreciation for handmade crafts while studying at NID Ahmedabad. She was fascinated to learn about the various traditional techniques which were passed on from generation to generation, resulting in a passion for quality. She was so impressed by them that during her Master’s degree at NYU, she decided to feature the 525 styles of handicrafts present across India for an assignment on data visualization. The research carried out during this project led her to realize the large untapped potential of these techniques. This sowed the seeds for her brand Artisanal Abode. “We reinterpret some of these craft forms to produce luxurious, contemporary furniture products for a more global audience. Instead of turning to Italy and China, I wanted to create products in India using these highly specialized skills, versatile materials and distinct modes of production available here in our own country,” she explains.