For Shruthi Prakash, each little factor can grow to be uncooked materials for an eco-friendly product. The founding father of Ombak — which means “a large wave” in Bahasa, the language spoken in Indonesia — is on a mission to seek out sustainable alternate options for on a regular basis wants, significantly furniture and home decor.
“We make a lot of products using natural alternatives and materials. Our primary materials are banana fibre and water hyacinth. Then, we also use seagrass,” she explains. The completed merchandise from the Chennai-based model vary from furniture corresponding to chairs, sofas, and facet tables to home decor gadgets like baskets, planters, and wall decor.
However, the most attention-grabbing materials Prakash is at the moment exploring is pine needles. “They are a very good alternative for a hotel or high-utility kind of business. Among eco-friendly options, it’s the most water-resistant. For example, banana fibre lasts about three years, whereas pine needle products can last a lifetime. They’re also better suited for sun and water exposure, as the chances of colour degradation and other damage are lower,” she says.
Shruthi Prakash
Ombak sources its supplies from Himachal Pradesh, in partnership with a number of NGOs. “In Himachal, it’s an all-women team. In Kolkata, it’s 85% women. I want to create more spaces where women can come together,” provides Prakash.
After gaining publicity to sustainable and eco-friendly product-making in Indonesia, Prakash says she’s impressed by the manner supplies are used there. “In India, if you take banana fibre, I would say 95% of what’s available in the market is in rope form. You extract the fibre into thin straws and weave them. But in Indonesia, I learned how to process the fibre into sheet form. It’s about knowing which part of the tree stem to extract to get that result. So while I wouldn’t call it innovation, I’d say I was able to create newer products and designs simply through different material usage,” she explains.
Just a few completed merchandise.
To bring a trip vibe into the home, Prakash suggests specializing in pure components. “We make amenities such as trays, toiletry trays, soap dishes, toothbrush stands, mirrors, lighting, and so on. Any plastic product can be replaced [with these],” she says. For home decor, costs begin from ₹600. For furniture, designs can be found from ₹12,000 and can go as much as ₹40,000. Natural supplies, Prakash provides, are likely to work higher in South India. And locations corresponding to Coimbatore, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru have responded to her model the greatest to this point.
Ombak’s architectural shoppers embrace Poetics, a design construct studio in Bengaluru, which is understood for its fashionable, eco-friendly architectural design, inside furnishing, and creating pure edible home gardens; and Interior 360, an architectural agency that specialises in inside design.
Currently, Prakash is partnered with Toran, a Chennai-based furniture showroom, and is on the lookout for extra such collaborations.
The merchandise can be found at ombak.life.
