Elephant dung, banana fibre, old wine bottles, newspapers and shredded prints can help make your home get chic
A few years ago, Mahima Mehra kept dung at the same disrespectable distance everyone does. But one visit to Jaipur left Mehra with a brainwave that expanded into Haathi Chaap, a company that makes handmade paper from elephant dung and has clients across India and overseas. Mehra figures among several designers who have taken to recycling to create stylish eco-friendly designs.

Yasmin Sethi, a Delhi-based 23-year-old, who studied product design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts, London, for example, uses newspapers to create trendy furniture. “I like exploring with traditional crafts and designs from across the world,” she says. Her designs are utilitarian but chic and contemporary. The techniques that go into making the furniture or stunning paper lamps are trade secrets that Sethi has come up with after intensive research. “Paper is easily one of the most beautiful textures to work with. We waste more paper every day than we probably waste water or electricity. I wanted to put all this to use,” says Sethi.

A thought which Mehra also put to good use. “I noticed that the fibre in dried dung looked exactly like the fibre from which we make handmade paper,” says the Haathi Chaap owner. The dung undergoes a complicated process of several washes, treatment in salt water so that it doesn't smell and is then mixed with cotton rags to make paper pulp. “Our current place for manufacturing is Jaipur as we are working with the elephants at the Amer Fort. We will soon start making paper at Sadri, close to Udaipur. An organisation that works with camel herders is helping us. We’ve already started making paper with camel poop,” says Mehra. Her products include coasters, knick-knacks, game boards, carry bags to cards, photo albums and diaries.

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