We had been discussing since last winter, about creating our first ever unique product for the 'Unposted Letters' store. All we needed was 'a beginning'. After a lot of brainstorming , the idea finally began to take shape - an illustrated limited edition handcrafted calendar ! What would represent 'the beginning' better than a cool year calendar? This thought fueled with several mugs of coffee ended up in finalizing our opening product - The Art Calendar for the year 2016

We modeled it as a desk calendar, so as to make it ideal for gifting purposes as well.  The Magic of beginnings-  Calendar' 2016 is a combination of- a customised miniature easel stand and 12 small illustrated  leaflets for each month.

For the calendar leaflets, Vimal has done a magical job by fusing his 'Unposted Letters' stories to each and every month of 2016. Illustrations looked breathtaking once printed, and , it  actually opened a new challenge for us - the easel stand on which these beautiful illustrated leaflets are to be placed, should on no account be an ordinary one!

For the easel,we began the search for an apt medium & method to execute the design we had in mind. Our design was minimalistic yet classy and what could have done more justice to this thought than wood and lac-turnery!!!

Lac- turnery is the method of craftsmanship wherein the product is made on a lathe, which is a rotating-turning hand held machine, and lacquered with organic non toxic vegetable dye. The main highlight of this method is that the product would have perfectly circular and symmetrical shapes and edges. It requires tremendous skill and precision and this is 100% eco friendly.

For this, our angel from Heaven was Venkat from Chanapatna -  who is a real master of his traditionally learned craft work of lac-turnery! In a couple of days, his crew gave us the first prototype -a beautiful wooden easel colored with natural dye. Adding a little more simplicity to it, we made the final one. As we say, its a  small wooden easel wearing yellow socks :-D

Packaging of this product was another concern, because the product was no longer an ordinary calendar - as it had completely transformed from a rough sketch to an mesmerising piece of art by itself ! Thanks to Papercats team, we finalised our package design which is yet again quite unique , and got it screen printed with colors of red and white.

Each illustrated leaflet is designed in such a way that it tells you a story ! A story to ponder on, every month ... We hope you love flaunting it as much as we loved making it !!!

Lets believe in the magic of beginnings!