City stores get crafty, cater to creative hobbyists

Chennai has become a new destination for artists, crafts enthusiasts and hobbyists to shop for their favourite stationery. Most of the art lovers would have visited these quirky stores in and around Chennai. Hindustan Trading Company (HTC), The Craft Shop and Starbox are the leading players when it comes to art supplies. The latest entrant is the Japanese brand, Miniso, that has opened two outlets in the city.

“Though craft is a finicky topic, what I can assure is that the craft supply industry is flourishing. One particular craft would be trending for a few days, but it would vanish soon. At one point, adult colouring books were the rage. But now people aren’t showing much interest in it. I think the love to try out various crafts is a fad. Earlier this year, we had a great sale for quilling products, but now decoupage and mixed media are the current trends. It’s almost like fashion — trends and interests vary from time to time. If you ask me 10 days later, what’s the trend, my answer would be stenciling or stipling or something completely different,” says Amritha Venketakrishnan, the current owner of HTC.

Apart from hobbyists and hard-core craft lovers, the demand for a craft is very much influenced by social media and YouTube. “The supply and need of craft products largely depend on the trend that’s happening on Instagram or Facebook. I think the trend pushes people to experiment and explore. If a popular artist starts trending something, then the demand for that particular product would shoot up,” the youngster adds.

Of late, the number of art and craft workshops organised in the city has increased exponentially. Priya Sivaraj founded The Craft Shop, Adyar, in order to cater to the needs of card-makers and scrapbook enthusiasts. “Western craft hobbies like scrapbooks and cardmaking have got a huge fan following in the city. Workshops and craft classes conducted by experts in the field have pulled in a lot of people to try out various crafts like decoupage, quilling (or paper filigree), stifling, stenciling, sospeso (an Italian crafts), etc,” says Priya.

Learning a craft is one of the best de-stressors and the demand for products is also high. “There are umpteen numbers of craft classes happening on weekends and participants love to try a variety of art paper rolls, art pads, craft papers, embossing pens, sketchbooks and so on. Alcohol ink is one of the latest entrants in the market — with this ink you can create backgrounds for stamping and cardmaking,” informs Priya.

We quizzed the store owners about the competition from online biggies and new brands in town. Abdul Rahman, the partner of Starbox, says that he doesn’t feel the pinch. “Professionals and craft lovers always prefer physical stores. The online buyers are those who wanted to experiment one-time. More brands and shops mean more demand and it’s a good thing,” he says.