With Innori Crafts, Prachi Vinay Joshi is creating colourful keepsakes out of wood and pebbles
KALYANI JHA | NT BUZZ
Being a daughter of an art teacher, Prachi Vinay Joshi from Mapusa, has inherited a love for designs and colours. And while she studied engineering, she kept her passion for art alive by creating paper crafts and home decor items, out of recycled paper.
In 2022 however, her art dabbling took a new turn when her home was being renovated. “When I realised that the old wood was going to go to waste, I decided to try and make something out of it,” she shares.
She started her experiments with making key holders with waste wood. The works were a hit at a few exhibitions she participated and she soon started getting bulk orders.
But Joshi wanted to get more innovative. And it is exploration that led her to pebble art. “Traditional Indian art forms are now repeated everywhere. I felt that pebble art was something different and quirky,” says Joshi, adding that people soon began appreciating the works with requests pouring in to make minions and bird-themed fridge magnets. “Now we have a wide range of characters,” she says.
In 2023, her start-up was selected for the IIM Bangalore incubation programme, where she learned more about entrepreneurship. This incubation programme gave her the confidence to build her business.
“The training programme gave me the idea of empowering other ladies,” says Joshi, who now has two women working with her. “While they didn’t know anything about art, with a little bit of training they can now do pebble art,” she says.
Since 2024, Joshi has fully focused on doing pebble art and has founded Innori Crafts. Innori, she says, symbolises Innovative Indian Nari. She gets many of her ideas from Pinterest and is inspired by Michela Bufalini, a pebble artist from Germany.
Joshi works with marble stones, seashore pebbles, oil shells, MDF, pine wood, thick wood, and plywood.
As the business is based on upcycling, some of the raw materials are procured from architectural renovation projects. “For bulk orders we need perfect size shapes right for keychains and fridge magnets so we procure those directly from our vendors. Light weight white marble stones are procured from in and around Jaipur. Others we find on seashores,” shares Joshi.
Currently, Innori Crafts does pen stands, candle holders, fridge magnets, keychains, wall decor frames and key holders. Orders are accepted via Instagram, WhatsApp business and Facebook handles.
“Our special category of pebble art gifts that define the personality of the person are quite popular among customers,” says Joshi, who credits people’s faith in her works for her success. “My start-up journey and development of products is completely feedback based. After getting feedback from customers, we incorporate the changes,” she says. “It is due to our customers’ faith that we are growing day by day. And as we grow, we keep learning.”
