Venturing into South Bombay via SOBO

After achieving great responses from our 3 exhibitions in Mumbai, we realised that Mumbai-kars are very much the eco-conscious lot with a great eye for design. We started our first supply in Mumbai at SOBO in the midst of beautiful, breathtaking art deco buildings, neo-gothic classic structures and monuments, rich heritage fused with trendy, chic styles, posh and powerful. SOBO houses fashion clothing, lifestyle products and fashion accessories by young designers. Its chic layout and blue walls certainly sets the mood for shopping!

These are some of our items at SOBO

Society Interiors feature

Shortly after our participation at the Society Exhibition, Society Interiors magazine decided to feature us in their December issue! A warm introduction by the editor- Natasha, "With major global warming concerns, going eco-friendly is the mantra of today’s day and age. However, in our country eco-friendly products are limited to the use of fresh materials such as wood, cane, jute to name a few. Recycling too is restricted to just a few materials. One company that is very passionate about recycling products and giving them facelift is Workshop Q. Headed by sisters Radhika & Madhvi Khaitan, this Jaipur based company gives scrap a quirky makeover."

Society Interiors magazine, December 2010 issue

The Sip of Life feature!

A feature on an online platform for exchanging opinions, features and articles- The Sip of Life. We felt quite proud for making it to the The Sip of Life column with our recycling concept.
Thanks for this feature Amit!

Click here to read the interview.

Customised mirror

So we were contacted by someone who wanted to get a customised mirror made for her bathroom using bangles. The client was very specific on using earthy colors and wanted a pretty design. This is what we came up with.

The mirror up in the bathroom.

Our client absolutely loved it!

Entering the Bangalore market

We just stepped into The Orange Bicycle in Bangalore situated in Bangalore's chic and trendy Indiranagar. The Orange Bicycle is a space bringing together a story – a story of the beautiful, the desirable, the fun, the boho, and the chic, the sophisticated and at the same time quirky under one roof. They offer an eclectic mix of products including garments, jewelry, accessories, bags, shoes, art, pottery, home linen, home décor items and much more. The list is endless with a great find to be discovered at every step. They stock our vibrant colorpencil range of trays, placemats & photo frames along with a few assorted items.

P.S. notice the tags attached to each products. We have a short storyline of each product on how it is environmentally friendly to our planet :)

Verve magazine feature!

Scrapping it! By Verve magazine, November 2010 issue

Challenges facing a 'green' business like us

After participating in a few exhibitions and the responses we got from the stores, these are some of the challenges we were confronted with:

• High price concern – Our target market is middle income households of housewives and the youth. People have had this false impression of recycled eco friendly products being low priced ever since the inception of the ‘green’ concept. It was not that easy to explain to the consumers that even though the raw material is bought at a low value, the time spent in processing it and making it usable adds a chunk to the labour cost. Employing all handmade processes also contributes to the high price factor.

• Negative notion of products being made from scrap – A lot of people were hesitant to buy products as they termed it as “stuff made from kachra”. That was rather a very unexpected notion we faced.

• Procuring & upcycling the right kind of scrap – Procuring waste & making it usable by employing eco-friendly methods as opposed to treating it with chemicals was challenging too. For instance, a few friends suggested reusing old VHS tapes (the black tape in video cassettes). It sounded like a good idea as these tapes are strong and flexible. Upon researching about them, I found out that their direct exposure to skin is hazardous in the long run. So we need to be very careful in procuring the right kind of waste.

• Converting the scrap into an object which doesn’t let the viewer guess that its actually an upcycled product – Our main USP was to reuse waste in such a way that it did not look like the product was a result of the upcycle process. Transforming this waste to make it not look like waste is not exactly easy! The recycling phenomenon in the minds of people is limited to products made of tetra packs, tyres, poly bags and paper. It was both challenging and interesting to change this mindset of people and explain to them how we can upcycle with simple day to day materials even at home

• Bringing about the awareness of the NEED to be environmentally conscious


We are optimists by having set up a business on a conviction that our economy is gradually becoming sustainable. Despite the challenges, we are steering ourselves towards a green economy facing while overcoming stiff resistance in the pursuit of a greener planet.

The Vishwa show

Our next showcase was at the Vishwa show in Mumbai at CCI grounds on 29-31 Oct. With a funky display of newspaper balls in our stall, people were drawn from a distance to see what we had to offer. It was a great platform to network with green companies and buyers. There were different kinds of eco-friendly sellers ranging from organic food, green packaging, stalls promoting rural crafts, organic clothing, well-being holistic products to those promoting animal rights. We also gave a company presentation to a large audience of eco conscious buyers which also included young kids. This show was an exhibition along with a recreation ground for kids teaching them crafts like pottery, yoga workshops for them, etc.

Our eco-friendly stall decor!

Us giving a presentation about WorkshopQ and upcycling.

Our article in the Sunday Guardian

"Upcycling is the latest mantra for the environmentally enlightened".. The Sunday Guardian newspaper in Delhi very much agrees with our mantra of Upcycling. Introducing us as sister entrepreneurs challenging the concept of recycling, the editor starts the article colloquially by saying that 'green is not just one color, it comes in many shades.'

Society exhibition

Soon after our first exhibition, we were invited to participate in the Society Magazine Lifestyle Exhibition in Mumbai at WTC from 16-19 Sept. 2010. Our stall decor was highly appreciated and we discovered what our best selling products were. It was a good way to see how our products and cause were perceived by the consumers, what were their demands and requirements and what they expected from an eco-friendly brand. Moreover our feature in the Mid-day helped in increasing the footfall of visitors to our stall.

Mid-day press release

'Embrace the junk for funky ideas', WorkshopQ as described by Mumbai & Bangalore Mid-day newspaper. The editor - Amrita Bose described us as those giving a stylish makeover to junk at the eco-friendly label of WorkshopQ. With this article being published during one of our exhibitions in Mumbai, it was great publicity for our stall. In the editor's words, "Radhika is not alone in her endeavour. She and her sister Madhvi work out of a factory based in Jaipur. Radhika first thought of the idea of converting scrap into eco-friendly products with the honest intention of making 'green living' a part of our daily life."

Our first exhibition

Our first exhibition in Mumbai! We participated in Culture Collection Exhibition in Bombay at WTC on Aug 17-20. Was quite challenging to prepare for our first exhibition ever but learned a lot for it to prepare for future exhibitions.

A few sneak peaks of our stall.

Light fixture design for a tea house

So we were presented with a proposal to design accessories for a tea cafe called Tapri which was opening soon in Jaipur. Tapri, the name comes from a shed composed on jugaad on the streets of India for the purpose of serving tea and light meals to people around. They wanted their cafe to resemble as those on the streets so they opted for a local rugged look. We came up with a cool kettle light fixture for them along with 'chai' glass stands candle holders.

Doing product customisation is fun!

Our first step into the world of retail!

So our first order from Crazy Daisy and Rio Grande in New Delhi.

Crazy Daisy; a whimsical, beautiful and crazi-ly vibrant store in Mehr chand market of Delhi placed our first order of an assortment of trays and photo frames.


Rio Grande; thriving successfully GK M-block in Delhi for over 30 years stocks a blend of ethnic and contemporary products handpicked from all over India, decided to stock a few WorkshopQ items as well.

Becoming a green entrepreneur

Being an environmentalist by switching off lights when not needed, conserving paper, having CFLs instead of incandescent bulbs, carrying water bottles instead of purchasing a PET bottle, were just not enough reasons for us to start WorkshopQ. To become a green entrepreneur, passion is key. Those who are environmentally conscious only have the imagination to be creative in the recycle, reduce & reuse cycle along with spreading the cause with conviction to the general consumers and not just the esoteric ones.

The pros we listed for starting a green business are:
• Growing interest in the green business industry giving an opportunity to tap a growing market.
• A business giving consideration to the environment is more self-satisfactory.
• Advertising oneself as a provider of green products fabricates a whole new group of potential customers.
• People today have begun to realize the importance of green living and try to do their bit of saving the environment by simply choosing the right things to buy be it a sustainable solution, recycled product or something which is made using eco friendly substances. Taking advantage of this demand can prove to be quite lucrative.
• The green economy is finally gaining widespread traction. With green certifications such as LEED, Fair trade, Energy Star, Eco-Label etc. gaining popularity where a company needs to follow an accepted set of guidelines to get these certifications, ‘Green’ will very soon become a standard in the near future.
• The government has our back! The government gives certain tax exemptions, incentives for energy efficiency and other green incentives which make it economical and easier to start a green business

Going green really is the way to go!

Just scrap or maybe raw material?

We've been visiting a few factories, junkyards, hunting through everyday household waste .. found all kinds of (creative) waste. Thinking of how and if we can utlilize it productively in some way! Didn't know that so much wood from old crates is simply reduced to ashes. I'm sure we can find a better use of it.

Upcycling ?

We get questioned quite often on the concept of upcycling, we also get a lot of "hmm...upcycling..interesting concept", but the interesting part is they say that after we explain to them what upcycling is and how its so important for us to implement now and then almost immediately i spot them throwing something away (not necessarily in the dustbin, the street works as well)!

so just thought of clearing away this confusion. This 'upcycling' business is not about a list of do's and donts. Its actually about a different perspective and angle of looking at things. These 'things' could be waste or something brand new which someone gifted to you and you dont really like ! All you need to do is tilt your head in a different direction from the side you usually tilt it to and look at that object. I have collected a few examples of the brilliant and stunning work that has stemmed from people looking at objects from a different angle. Get inspired !!

Old shipping containers have been upcycled to make a mall ! The wonders of a powerful imagination !

Ever thought of doing that to an old pair of jeans that you dont want to part with, but its creating storage issues ? Now just be creative and turn it into art !

These are old boats, turned over to create storage sheds ! Brilliant eh ?

Upcycling & Reusing with style!

The start!

"Let us watch well our beginnings and results will manage themselves."
- Alexander Clark

The day WorkshopQ was born. A small pooja was held to commemorate this day.