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Writer's pictureKrishna

Knowing Handmade Life through 7 skills - which is yours ?

Updated: Nov 26, 2022


Yes, you can examine your life and see how best you can create your own version of "This Handmade Life". What does that mean ? If you are a regular reader of this blog or a subscriber of the podcast New Indian Woman, you already know what I am talking about. In the last article/podcast episode, we had a conversation with Dr. Nandita Iyer, renowned food blogger, author and also a medical doctor, about her book on this topic. More specifically, we talked about the joy of creating with hands, the positive impact of the same for us and for our children and so much more. In case you missed the last article/podcast episode, click here.

We continue our conversation, with more focus on the book itself, introducing the various sections of the books. In the process, Nandita takes us through how one can start the handmade life.

Listen to this episode, by the end of it you are sure to start thinking about what your hands want you to do with them!


What the New Indian Woman podcast is about

As you may already be aware, this podcast has 2 focus areas. One, We examine the challenges faced by today's Indian woman and propose ACTIONABLE strategies in the Indian context, on a wide variety of topics - right from identifying their passion to better productivity and parenting. Second, we meet women who chose to aspire or have a dream beyond their defined roles and facilitate sharing of what worked and what didn’t, for them. Today's episode falls in the first category.

And in the process, my aim is to help you, The New Indian woman, to realize your potential, chase your dreams and aspirations, utilize the wonderful opportunities available in today's world.

What's in this episode:

Dr. Nandita starts this episode talking about the typical starting trouble we all go through, especially when it comes to putting out what you have created outside of your own family. This is where she highlights how, with handmade, one can be in control of the process starting with a small quantity and then making adjustments and improvements as we go along.

She shares that the projects in the book using everyday stuff and nothing expensive and hence there is no need for starting trouble at all. She says it is important to start with what is at home and over a period of time, it will become a passion. She shares how the book introduces one to baby steps in specific areas and how this will lead you to explore ingredients, projects, groups and so on.

Nandita then explains the structure of the book - on chapter 1 focussing on her own journey. And then it moves on to chapters on specific skills - first, baking. She shares about this chapter, with interesting personal anecdotes. The subsequent chapters focus on spices and fermentation. Here, she talks about the immense benefits. The next handmade skill is on homemade beauty products - she says what you buy labelled as natural does not come close to what you make yourself. She explains how we should read the labels carefully, even if we choose to buy.

The next chapter is on soap making and here she talks about how this can also be good gifts. The later chapters are on kitchen gardening and fabric art - crochet, using vegetable dye on fabric. She details how crochet helps one stay calm , like meditation while ones hands are still moving. And you can create something in just 20 minutes!

And in the last chapter, Nandita talks about the business of handmade, just in case, you want to convert your passion in handmade to an alternate source of income. She explains how you can go about setting up a business. To help understand this better, she has interviewed 8 women to understand their journeys.

If you feel these are not areas where you have skills, she has suggestions for you too!

If you liked this episode, please help this reach more people by sharing this podcast with friends and family over Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest. Don’t forget to like our Facebook page.

Please write to me at krishna@thenewindianwoman.com or reach out to our social media pages to share your views on this episode.

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Mail : saffrontrail@gmail.com

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