animal farm by nishi chauhan

‘animal farm’ by nishi chauhanall images courtesy of nishi chauchan

‘animal farm’ all started when glass bottles – mason and preserve jars, wine and sauce, beer bottles – slowly began accumulating in the bangalore household of nishi chauhan. these vessels began piling up and became difficult to ignore and soon the indian designer began seeing shapes emerge in the form of animals. chuahan paid a casual visit to channapatna, the craft district located just outside the city. there a sizable community of craftsmen were churning out playful animal toys by the hundreds. before she knew it, she was collaborating with them, exchanging ideas, sketches, mock-ups and study models of what she had in mind.

the real challenge was to achieve a fusing of attitude and approach between designer and craftsmen – how do you get them to look at objects from a wider world view when their entire existence has always been their community? from the partnership,’animal farm’ was born – a collection of creatures which also function as lighting objects, giving their upcycled glass forms a new life. 

peeves, the penguin, and porky, the pig 

gerry, the giraffe, and flo, the fish 

humf, the hippopotamus, and ellie, the elephant

saved from an unimaginative end 

the craftsman at work, in channapatna 

applying lac to turned wood 

post process work

post process work 

assembly and finishing of prototypes

mock-up and study model

concept sketch

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.