"At Silver Nut Tree, the experiments go on on a daily basis, turning 'trash' into viable beautiful products that in their finished avatars are hard to be associated to the humble base material used in their creation."
Angeline Babu and Rituparna Das were baffled when their respective children asked them the meaning of the word “recycle.” The women tried their best to explain, but the children were dissatisfied with their textbook definitions and general explanation of the concept.
So, Angeline and Rituparna decided to show them how it is done and started Silver Nut Tree, a venture that makes beautiful handicrafts out of “trash.”
“The idea took root from the concept of finding immense potential in everyday objects thrown away as trash,” Rituparna told The Better India. “It started with a humble PET plastic bottle which showed the promise of becoming a treasure that no owner would want to throw away.”
The common interests of these friends in mythological, vintage and folk art etc., led them to focus on a particular genre of designs for their jewellery and handicrafts.
“This fascination has led us to incorporate public domain art in a big way in our creation,” Angeline told TBI. “Being the only ones doing what we do, we never had a reference point to fall back on in our creative pursuit. We are mostly into reverse engineering. We visualise a piece in its entire splendour and then spend days and nights wracking our brains about how to make it a reality!” she said.
Intricate designs, splashes of colours and beautiful depiction of mythological and folk art make one forget that these pieces are made from scrap material.
“At Silver Nut Tree, the experiments go on on a daily basis, turning ‘trash’ into viable beautiful products that in their finished avatars are hard to be associated to the humble base material used in their creation,” they say.
The founders have not restricted themselves to only upcycling PET plastic bottles, and have begun to explore other materials too.
“We realised that PET plastic is just one among the potential hazards [to the planet] and went on to find ways to upcycle punctured rubber tubes, bottle caps, washers, nuts, CDs, and even glass bottles!”
Silver Nut Tree has thus formed a fan base with people who love artefacts as much as nature and want a piece of both in one. “We feel extremely humbled by the constant appreciation, overwhelmingly so, that comes our way every day,” they told TBI, adding that
“but there have been some defining moments. A bride had once ordered pieces of jewellery from us, which she wanted to wear them at her wedding and reception!”
Rituparna and Angeline want us to rethink our concept of what is trash and what is beautiful. Our daily contribution to non-degradable waste has already made mountains of landfills. So, why not change the seemingly useless trash into a permanent object of value?
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“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. This very concept, if imbibed in our daily lives will stop so much from going to the ever-expanding landfill,” they say. “We believe every little effort counts, and every bit of waste which is turned into an object d’art or something that can be reused will definitely add up to a huge positive change, both in environmental conditions and psyche of people.”
If you are interested in these gorgeous pieces of art, check out their Facebook page or send your queries to silver.nut.tree@gmail.com.
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