#7: Meet The Crafting Queen

I have always bought greeting cards for my family, friends and husband, but never did it occur to me to make a card or personalize an already bought card. 

After talking to Karuna Chauhan, founder of Lulupu, I cannot wait to share her story with you. Hailing from a simple family, with an ex-army officer as her dad, she received abundant encouragement and support from her parents in order to prove herself. “Though I was always inclined towards the creative line, there were not enough options to discover the right course or education. Distressed through B.com, I decided to give NIFT a shot. But fashion was not my thing and I realized it later of course, when I didn't make it. I went ahead and completed my MBA in Marketing from Symbiosis, Pune, in 2007 and joined a job at a leading IT firm. Four years into the corporate job, I realized I wasn't cut for the hardcore politics. Plus IT stopped interesting me. I think it was around the same time things changed and for the good,” shares Karuna.

Passionate about craft ever since she was a kid, she would go to pick up cards from Archies’ for special occasions. But it did not allow her to customize it beyond a certain point. And always keen on creating a hand-made card with customized messaging, she believed it added an additional human element to the entire gifting process. “While I love everything to do with paper craft, people tend to mix it up with a more widely known form of paper art, which is Origami. However, the fundamental difference between the two, is that the traditional concept of Origami uses only one piece of paper, to create shapes, without the use of any scissors or glue. However, paper craft lets you deploy various techniques on paper or card as the primary artistic medium, for creating 3D objects as well,” says Chauhan.

As a paper craft artist, she uses various kinds of craft supplies and tools to create more professional looking handmade cards, scrapbooks, altered items, home decor which gives her work a fun and free-spirited feel. She makes all kinds of handmade invites, favour boxes, 2D/3D greeting cards, quilled paper art, scrapbooks for all occasions, altered arts like book ends, wall hangings and home decor products out of paper and related products.

On relocating to Bangalore for work in 2009, Karuna decided to use her free time to try her hand at hand-made greeting cards. Since her mother’s birthday was approaching, she decided to source the raw material. That’s when she spotted the colourful quilling strips. She navigated through a few DIY videos on YouTube to understand the technique better.

“As time progressed, I became extremely addicted to this form of paper craft and simultaneously started exploring other forms as well. I began a blog called Crafting Queen and kept updating it with my latest work and this gave me an opportunity to interact with other paper crafters not just in India, but also abroad. While the basic material was available in India, for the next level most of the material had to be sourced from abroad. I saw a lot of crafters relying on their friends and relatives to get them these products while returning from a trip to United States. It took me a lot of patience to source products through this channel. This is when I decided to create an online store, which will give crafters across India, an opportunity to purchase these products locally. Initially I used a blog called Crafting Queen Store to sell the products. Looking at the traffic and the demand I decided to go the e-commerce way and Lulupu.com was born on March 1st, 2012,” elaborates Karuna.

This special design team of Lulupu comprises of talented crafters across the country, which focus on providing a platform to build a community of like-minded crafters. To be a part of this team, a crafter has to qualify the set of filters or parameters decided by them. Lulupu.com provides them material from the store to create innovative projects which not just serve as an inspiration to other crafters, but also act as tutorials for amateurs.

Talk about the future of crafts and she quips, “Paper craft industry is at a very nascent stage in India. As a result, when I began pursuing my childhood hobby seriously, it was extremely difficult to source high quality raw material in India. The absence of retailers and suppliers prompted me to take the decision to open an online craft store which will cater to this growing need. It was a tough decision to embark on an unconventional journey, as the investment would come from my personal savings. It will be unfair to evaluate the success of such an initiative within a few months, as the task at hand is not only to help crafter source high quality global brands, but at the same time grow this segment by generating enough interest amongst prospective crafters.”

After quitting her job in March 2013, without doubt Karuna is her own boss and appraises herself. She gets to stay home, help take care of her 2 month old Labrador puppy, and also explore her creativity. Her husband, Siddhant, built her blog and ensured she kept it updated all the time. “He is an excellent photographer and he makes my work shine on my Facebook Page too. I love challenging myself to try new, quirky and crazy craft ideas. While the online store is one portion of what I do, I am an avid crafter and that’s the reason I began this journey.” she says. “We are constantly working towards optimizing our supply chain to source the best quality products of internationally renowned brands at the lowest possible cost. Along with this we wish to increase our team size and make it efficient and scalable,” she ends.