What started as an attempt to create a thoughtful gift for a close friend, has quietly grown into an enjoyable creative venture for Diksha Parab
KALYANI JHA | NT BUZZ
Thread Mint, a venture of Diksha Parab from Pernem was started in January 2025 on the insistence and encouragement of her girl gang. A full time professional working at Goa Institute of Management (GIM), Parab was looking for a meaningful wedding gift for a close friend.
“We had a budget of around Rs.500. While browsing online, I came across an Instagram page that made photo embroidery but the price for the product was above Rs.30,000, way over my budget. That’s when I thought, ‘I have to try this myself’,” shares Parab.
Armed only with the basic embroidery skills her mother had taught her years ago, Parab decided to experiment. But miniature embroidery demanded an entirely new level of precision.
“Earlier, I used to practise on pillow covers and cloth, but doing it on paper is completely different,” she shares. To her surprise however, the first attempt was
a success.
“I gifted the finished photo frame to my friend and she was very surprised. Everyone told me it was such a unique product and encouraged me to start a page with my works,” she says. That encouragement led to Thread Mint.
“It took a lot of time to learn because the work is so small and delicate. Even now, I’m still training myself. My friends kept giving me ideas,” she says, adding that she takes inspiration from Pinterest.
Parab started with photo embroidery and frames and now has added earrings in different sizes, bracelets, pendants, keychains and tote bags. She is also working on sling bags, dresses, and
plain shirts.
But finding the right materials has been challenging. “I spent a lot of time searching for the bases for earrings and bracelets because they weren’t easily available,” she shares, adding that one also needs to be very precise when working with earrings given their small size. “Initially it was very difficult to work on photo embroidery too because if you stitch in the wrong place, the paper tears,” she says.
Parab has showcased her creations at a student exhibition organised at GIM in November, where the response encouraged her to continue. She will now be participating in another exhibition
in August.
Orders are received primarily through Instagram, while friends and acquaintances often contact
her directly.
While most customers are from Goa, Thread Mint has slowly begun reaching beyond the state, including Bengaluru, Chennai, and Kolkata.
Since she is balancing her creative work with her full time job, she works on Thread Mint orders only after office hours. Hence, she can only accept small orders. “Saturdays and Sundays are my working days for Thread Mint. I do everything myself—the embroidery, packaging, even the display boards for the earrings,” she says.
Looking back, Parab says the biggest transformation has not been in her products but in herself.
“When I started, my embroidery was very basic. I wasn’t confident about taking customers’ photographs. If they were my friends, I could do it. Today that hesitation has disappeared,” she shares. “Now I feel that whatever design someone gives me, I can
do it.”
The creative process has also become a source of emotional balance for her personally, she says.
Among her creations, embroidered earrings remain the biggest bestseller.
“Photo embroidery is also very unique because doing embroidery on a photograph or paper is rare. The base is black and white and the colour combination of the thread changes the entire look,” she says, adding that she hopes to expand further into embroidered
clothing soon.
Today, every appreciative message continues to fuel her journey. “Even people who ordered through Instagram kept telling me that my work was unique. That appreciation keeps me inspired,”
she says.
“My long-term goal is to remain consistent, keep creating with passion, and see this small dream grow into a successful business,” she adds. “I hope my journey encourages others to keep learning, keep creating, and never hesitate to start something of their own.”
